Aave Surpasses $24 Billion in Total Value Locked, Now Holds 20% of the DeFi Market

Aave, the decentralized lending protocol, has reached a major milestone – now accounting for 20% of the total value locked (TVL)

Decentralized lending protocol Aave has reached a major milestone – now accounting for 20% of the total value locked (TVL) across the entire decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

According to DeFiLlama, Aave’s TVL has soared past $24 billion, making it the largest DeFi protocol by TVL – outpacing longtime leaders like Lido and MakerDAO. The rally in AAVE, the protocol’s native governance token, has followed suit. AAVE is currently trading at $262, up 90% over the past month, with a market cap approaching $4 billion, per CoinGecko.

The broader DeFi market has been lifted by a resurgence in Ethereum (ETH), which has gained nearly 60% month-over-month.

As DeepChain reports, Aave’s TVL dominance has nearly doubled since January 2024 – from 11% to 20% over the past 16 months. In the same period, DeFi’s total TVL rose from $56 billion to $115 billion, while Aave’s share grew 3.6x, from $6.6 billion to $23.8 billion.

This surge highlights Aave’s central role in the ongoing DeFi recovery after a sluggish start to the year. The protocol is also expanding across multiple ecosystems, announcing recently that its V3 iteration has officially launched on the Aptos blockchain, bringing its total multi-chain deployments to over 10 networks.

Aave's TVL surpasses $40 billion for the first time in history. In the beginning of the year, Aave's TVL was around 6 million ETH, but now it's almost 10 million. Is anything possible in crypto? Maybe.

The DeFi sector is entering a new growth phase in 2025, with a focus on emerging markets and Layer 2 scaling solutions. As BitKE reports, institutional interest in DeFi is also accelerating, further boosting the industry's recovery.

According to an analysis by blockchain analytics platform Sea Launch, activity on Optimism and Arbitrum has surged in recent months, with Optimism registering 1.3 billion transactions and Arbitrum not far behind with 1 billion transactions. These figures highlight the increasing adoption of Layer 2 scaling solutions, which are crucial for handling the growing volume of transactions on Ethereum.

Furthermore, BitKE's report highlights that the narrative of the "next billion users" is unfolding in surprising ways. In the case of Web3, this chapter is being written in Africa, driven by mobile-first use cases, local developer engagement, and an explosion in wallet activity in countries like Nigeria and Kenya.

Earlier this year, DeFi experienced a sharp setback as TVL dropped 40% following the U.S. post-election cooldown.

DeFi TVL peaked at $179 billion in December 2024 but dropped 40% to $109 billion by April, pivoting from a high of 11% to a low of 7%.

However, the sector is rebounding quickly. Over the past 30 days, DeFi TVL has grown 38%, reaching $151 billion as of May 20. Aave is leading the recovery with its TVL more than doubling from $9 billion to $24 billion, now accounting for 20% of the total DeFi TVL.