DeFi Protocol Aave Plans to Launch an ‘Aave Network’ Chain After Completing Its V4 Upgrade

Stani Kulechov, the lending protocol’s founder, revealed this in a May 27 social media post, saying: “This is not a drill, Aave Network is planned to come after V4.”

DeFi lending protocol Aave is planning to launch its own blockchain network, following the completion of its V4 upgrade.

Stani Kulechov, founder of the lending protocol, revealed the plan in a May 27 social media post, hinting that the chain could be launched by “next year for sure or earlier.”

According to data from DeFillama, Aave is the largest lending protocol in the DeFi sector, with a total value of assets locked at $13.2 billion.

Aave Network plans

Earlier this month, Aave Labs proposed the Aave Network as part of its strategic 2030 roadmap.

The firm said the network would serve as the primary hub for both Aave and GHO while maintaining a multichain and network-agnostic approach.

“While Ethereum would remain the home of the Aave DAO and the Aave governance, the network can bring unprecedented growth to Aave and GHO by opening up unexplored markets,” it added.

The proposal included plans to use the GHO stablecoin for gas fees, with the AAVE token as the main staking asset for decentralized validators and sequencers.

However, Aave Labs noted that it would continue monitoring the evolution of both Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains before finalizing its planned network architecture. It did confirm that the Aave Network would inherit its security from Ethereum.

Community response

Members of the crypto community have largely welcomed the news of Aave’s Network plans.

“All successful apps will launch their own chains over time,” said Jason Ma, head of DeFi at Axelar Foundation.

Meanwhile, Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave Chan Initiative, claimed that Aave would be the largest Ethereum Layer with a market size of $20.5 billion — placing it ahead of other Ethereum-based layer-2 networks like Optimism, Arbitrum and the fast-rising Coinbase-backed Base network.

He added that, with that market cap, Aave would rank as the third-largest chain after Ethereum and Tron.

Aave's parent company, Avara, recently announced Lens Network to expand Lens Protocol on zkSync technology, and Kulechov has been a strong advocate for the workflow to launch appchains.