Aave (AAVE) Cryptocurrency: Comprehensive Overview
Core Technology and Blockchain Architecture
Aave is an Open Source Protocol to create Non-Custodial Liquidity Markets to earn interest on supplying and borrowing assets with a variable interest rate. The protocol is comprised of publicly accessible, self-executing smart contracts that are deployed on various permissionless public blockchains.
The protocol is deployed on Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Fantom, and Harmony networks, as well as Layer 2 chains including Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Gnosis, Base, Scroll, Metis, and ZKsync Era. Aave runs on software programs called smart contracts that remove the need for any middlemen, thereby automating lending-borrowing.
The protocol is comprised of publicly accessible, self-executing smart contracts that are deployed on various permissionless public blockchains. The Aave Protocol smart contracts have been audited and formally verified by third parties.
Primary Use Cases and Real-World Applications
Lending and Borrowing
Aave is a decentralised non-custodial liquidity protocol where users can participate as suppliers or borrowers. Suppliers provide liquidity to the market while earning interest, and borrowers can access liquidity by providing collateral that exceeds the borrowed amount.
A user selects a supported cryptocurrency (e.g., ETH, USDC) and supplies it into the Aave Protocol. Upon supplying, the address receives a corresponding amount of aTokens (e.g., aETH, aUSDC) in return. These tokens represent the addresses share in the pool and start accruing interest automatically.
The interest earned by liquidity providers is not fixed and varies depending on the utilisation rate of the asset in the pool. The utilisation rate is the percentage of the total pool that is currently borrowed. High Utilisation Rate: if a large portion of the pool is being borrowed, the interest rate increases. This incentivizes supplies, borrow repayments, and disincentivizes further borrowing.
Flash Loans
Aave pioneered the use of flash loans, in which people borrow cryptocurrency without collateral, use it to buy an asset, sell that asset, and then return the original amount in the same transaction while pocketing their profit. If the principal and interest are not repaid within one Ethereum transaction, the flash loan is effectively reversed.
Real-World Assets Integration
Aave also provides pools for real-world assets, like real estate, cargo and freight invoices, and payment advances. For such pools, a partner company called Centrifuge helps brick-and-mortar businesses tokenize aspects of their operations. Once tokenized, investors can purchase (or hold as collateral) these tokens, which behave similar to bonds and earn a yield on their holdings.
Native Stablecoin
In July 2022, Aave's community approved the launch of GHO, a decentralized, collateralized stablecoin.
Founding Team, Key Developers, and Project History
Founder and Early Development
Stani Kulechov, a law student in Helsinki, founded a for-profit company named ETHLend in 2017. In the same year, ETHLend conducted an initial coin offering (ICO) of its native LEND tokens and raised $16.2 million.
Kulechov renamed ETHLend to Aave in 2018, shifting from peer-to-peer lending and borrowing to smart contract-powered liquidity pools. Consequently, LEND token holders migrated to LEND's updated counterpart Aave. The migration ratio was 100 LEND to 1 Aave, dropping the maximum token supply to 16 million Aave.
Key Contributors
Marc Zeller's journey in the crypto ecosystem began in 2015 when he co-founded Ethereum France and organized the EthCC conference in Paris. Established in 2022, ACI is a leading service provider for the Aave DAO. Zeller played a crucial role in the launch of Aave, joining EthLend in 2019 to prepare for Aave V1's release in 2020.
At the time of writing, the Aave team is made up of 29 individuals with Stani Kulechov as the CEO.
Tokenomics: Supply, Distribution, and Mechanics
Total and Circulating Supply
The circulating supply of Aave is 15,181,444 tokens and the total supply is 16,000,000 tokens. The total supply of AAVE is capped at 16M tokens. Of this amount, 13M were redeemed by LEND token holders and the remaining 3M were sent to the Aave Ecosystem Reserve.
Token Distribution
The Aave allocation includes LEND to AAVE Migrator at 81.25% and AAVE Ecosystem Reserve at 18.75%. The largest individual address holding AAVE holds slightly over 250,000 tokens, which is only 1.6% of the total available supply. This low percentage ensures that no single holder or group of holders can easily reach a majority to enforce their will, resulting in a genuinely democratic vote.
Vesting and Unlock Schedule
Aave follows a vesting schedule with allocations to the LEND to AAVE Migrator and AAVE Ecosystem Reserve. Most allocations are released through a cliff mechanism. The full unlock schedule extends into 2027. As of today, approximately 15,181,444 Aave which is 94.88% of Aave's total supply has been unlocked.
Deflationary Mechanics
AAVE tokens have been built based on the ERC-20 standard, and they are designed to be deflationary. The value capture originates from buybacks funded by protocol net revenues plus GHO interest profit. The decrease in sell pressure is due to the phasing out of the staking module, implying that Aave will utilize stablecoins and ETH from protocol revenues for expenditures, instead of issuing new $AAVE tokens. This shift will reduce Aave's market pressure and enhance its scarcity.
Consensus Mechanism and Network Security Model
Ethereum Proof of Stake
Aave is secured through the Ethereum blockchain, utilizing its Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Validators on Ethereum confirm transactions and uphold network security by proposing and attesting to blocks.
Protocol Security Measures
No protocol can be considered entirely risk free, but extensive steps have been taken to minimize these risks as much as possible – the Aave Protocol code is publicly available and auditable by anyone, and has been audited by multiple smart contract auditors. Any code changes must be executed through the onchain governance processes. Additionally, there is an ongoing bug bounty campaign and service providers specializing in technical reviews and risk mitigation.
Safety Module
Participants in the Aave Safety Module earn incentives for supplying tokens that backstop the protocol in the event of a shortfall. This mechanism helps protect the protocol from unforeseen risks and market volatility, and helps maintain the stability of the ecosystem.
Key Partnerships and Ecosystem Integrations
Stablecoin Partnerships
Aave has been a critical partner in supporting USDC's growth and success since the earliest days of USDC, and has now become a key distribution partner for both USDC and the launch of new Circle stablecoins such as EURC. They deliver some of the most significant innovation, scale and liquidity in DeFi.
Aave has played a pivotal role in driving USDT's growth within the DeFi ecosystem. By providing stability and liquidity, USDT bridges traditional finance and crypto, forming a strong foundation when integrated with Aave.
Cross-Chain Integration
Aave integrated with the Polygon network in 2021 to leverage its scalability solutions, reducing transaction costs and enhancing the user experience for Aave users.
Real-World Asset Partnerships
For such pools, a partner company called Centrifuge helps brick-and-mortar businesses tokenize aspects of their operations.
Competitive Advantages and Unique Value Proposition
Market Leadership
DeFi protocol Aave is one of the largest lenders of cryptocurrency and its AAVE token has a larger market cap than rivals Maker or Compound. Aave has been a pioneer in decentralized finance, setting high standards for security, reliability, and risk management. Their achievements in building a leading lending protocol and establishing best practices around how to secure DeFi correctly has made the entire industry attractive to users and institutions.
Scale and Adoption
Aave handles tens of billions of dollars across 12+ networks.
Innovation in DeFi
Aave is a DeFi protocol that created the unique concept of Flash Loans. This process enables users to borrow funds instantly without providing collateral. Another big selling point is how those who borrow through Aave can alternate between fixed and variable interest rates. While fixed rates can provide some certainty about costs during times of volatility in the crypto markets, variable rates can come in handy if the borrower thinks that prices will fall in the near future.
Decentralized Governance
The distribution of tokens is highly decentralized, both in relative and absolute terms.
Current Development Activity and Roadmap Highlights
Protocol Versions
Aave introduced its protocol in 2020, offering an enhanced and versatile lending and borrowing platform powered by Ethereum smart contracts. Aave launched its second version (V2) in 2020, introducing several improvements, including better user experience, increased efficiency, and additional features such as flash loans and stable-rate borrowing.
Governance Evolution
Aave Governance V3 introduces new features including voting on lower transaction fee networks and aAAVE voting power. Aave Governance V3 introduces the ability to vote on lower transaction fee networks such as Polygon POS and Avalanche C-Chain while token balances remain on Ethereum mainnet.
Recent Initiatives
Initiatives launched by ACI, such as Skywards, Dolce Vita, and Orbit, laid the efficient foundation for DAO processes. With the key technical support of former founding team members (now BGD Labs), the codebase continued to optimize, the protocol achieved positive returns, and regained market share in the most brutal competitive environment in history.
Safety Module Modernization
Aave has established reserves known as the "Safety Module" to address potential bad debts within the protocol. These reserves consist of: Staked $AAVE, with a current market value of $275 million · Staked GHO, which is a native stablecoin of Aave, holds a current market value of $60 million · Staked $AAVE-$ETH LP tokens, a significant source of on-chain liquidity for Aave, currently valued at $124 million.
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