About

Aave is a liquidity management protocol allowing users to borrow/lend crypto assets on supported networks, like Ethereum, Avalanche, and Arbitrum.

History

Aave’s Beginnings

Aave was launched as “ETHLend” in 2017 by Founder and CEO Stani Kulechov to build a peer-to-peer decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem on Ethereum. The project team raised funding in a 2017 Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to create a decentralized peer-to-peer lending platform. ETHLend rebranded to Aave in September 2018 and switched from the peer-to-peer lending model to a liquidity pool-based model. The liquidity pool-based protocol launched as Aave V1 on Ethereum on Jan. 8, 2020, enabling users to earn interest on deposits and borrow assets. Notably, an AAVE Improvement Proposal (AIP) vote on Dec. 24, 2022, disabled the majority of Aave V1 by freezing all reserves in the Aave V1 contracts. Users can still repay debts and withdraw collateral but can no longer supply and borrow assets.

Aave V2

Aave V2 launched on Dec. 3, 2020, with multiple new features, including (aTokens), debt repayments with collateral, upgraded flash loans, and collateral swaps. On March 16, 2021, the project team announced the launch of AMM markets in Aave V2, supplying select decentralized exchange liquidity provider (LP) tokens.

The launch also included the activation of Aave Governance V2, granting AAVE stakers governance rights, opening AIPs to AAVE tokenholders and stakers, introducing voting power delegation, and creating the governance “Guardian.” The Guardian is a six-of-ten multi-sig consisting of “community-elected individuals or entities” with veto power for AIPs and the ability to pause Aave markets.

In November 2021, Aave Arc, a permissioned version of the protocol for whitelisted financial institutions as determined by Aave Governance, was introduced. In December 2021, Aave launched its liquidity markets for real-world assets (RWAs) powered by a partnership with Centrifuge.

Aave V3

On March 16, 2022, Aave V3 launched on Polygon, Fantom, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Harmony. On Jan. 27, 2023, AIP-147 passed to approve the launch of Aave V3 on Ethereum. As of January 2024, Aave V3 remains the most recent version of Aave and is live on Ethereum, Avalanche, Optimism, Polygon, Arbitrum, Metis, Base, Gnosis, Harmony, and BNB Smart Chain. In December 2023, a standardized process for evaluating new deployments of Aave V3 was approved on Snapshot. Then, in January 2024, initial temperature checks through Snapshot to launch Aave V3 on Kava and Scroll were approved. Notably, assets on Harmony and Fantom have been frozen due to external bridge exploits.

On July 7, 2022, the project team announced the development of GHO, an overcollateralized, multi-collateral, USD-pegged stablecoin. On July 14, 2023, AIP-268 was passed to launch GHO, and the next day it was launched on Ethereum. Users can borrow GHO using crypto assets supplied to Aave V3 liquidity pools as collateral. Lastly, in January 2023, GHO was added as a stakeable asset within Aave’s Safety Module.

In December 2023, AIP-395 and AIP-416 were approved to migrate to Aave Governance V3. This introduced new voting networks, gasless voting, voting representatives, the Aave Robot for proposal execution, and allowed the Aave interest-bearing AAVE token (ERC-20 aAAVE) to be used for governance.

Notable Developments in 2024

• In February 2024, Aave V3 was deployed on Scroll and BNB Smart Chain.
• On April 12, 2024, following a successful governance vote, cross-chain GHO using Chainlink's CCIP went live on testnet. This enables the bridging of GHO from one Layer-2 to another or Ethereum. Base and Arbitrum are supported, and the project team “plans to soon include Optimism, Avalanche, and more.”