Aave Retires 50 Assets and Exits Six Chains, Consolidating Away From Low-Value Markets

Aave, the largest DeFi lending protocol with $14.3 billion in total deposits, is formally retiring 50 low-adoption asset reserves and shutting down its full presence on six blockchain networks, according to reporting from The Defiant. The consolidation affects $98.1 million in supplied assets and $15.6 million in outstanding debt, though the total represents less than 1% of the protocol's deposit base.

The move consolidates Aave's operational footprint as DeFi revenue increasingly concentrates on high-value chains. Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos will be fully deprecated, while individual reserves across eleven deployments will be selectively removed. Risk provider LlamaRisk proposed the plan on Wednesday as an Aave Request for Final Comment (ARFC), the step preceding a binding onchain vote.

Deposits on the six targeted chains have collapsed. Sonic fell 74% over six months to $7.6 million. Scroll dropped 86% to $2.2 million. zkSync declined 88% to $844,000. Soneium fell 95% to $173,000. Per LlamaRisk's analysis, each of these chains generates under $5,000 quarterly in protocol revenue, a figure below the cost of maintaining price oracles, monitoring, and operational support.

The 50 individual reserve deprecations include 21 matured Pendle principal tokens and concentrate on two Bitcoin liquid-staking wrappers: FBTC and eBTC on Ethereum, which combined hold $16.3 million after user balances collapsed from roughly $72 million six months ago. Aave is also removing bridged stablecoin variants such as USDC.e and USDbC where native versions exist, and winding down MaticX because issuer Stader is sunsetting the token.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov framed the consolidation in measured terms. "After a comprehensive review, Aave is deprecating 50 low adoption asset reserves across multiple deployments," he said, adding that the move "should not be interpreted as a view on any L1 or L2." He stated that the goal is to "reduce Aave's operational, technical, and economic risk surface so we can focus on higher-impact priorities such as growing existing high value markets and expanding to securities finance." A companion proposal posted the same day offboards reserves flagged for Chainlink price feed risk, including LUSD, FRAX, and RPL on Ethereum.

The deprecation mechanism follows a gradual path: each reserve will be frozen, supply and borrow caps dropped to 1, and reserve factors raised to 99% on the six retiring chains with a 5% base borrow rate. That structure incentivizes suppliers to withdraw and borrowers to repay without forcing immediate liquidations. Aave V4 deposits, meanwhile, have nearly doubled over the past month, with supply caps raised for the eleventh time, signaling continued strength in the protocol's core markets.

The ARFC remains open for community input before an onchain vote. Until that vote passes, no reserve is formally retired.