Aave is proposing a broad cleanup of underused markets across its lending platform, combining the shutdown of six chain deployments with the removal of dozens of lightly used reserves elsewhere. The governance plan would affect $98.1 million in supplied assets and $15.6 million in outstanding debt as the protocol narrows its focus to larger markets.
Scope of the proposal
The plan calls for winding down Aave deployments on Sonic, Scroll, Aptos, zkSync, Metis, and Soneium. In addition, it recommends removing 50 asset reserves and 21 Pendle tokens across 11 deployments.
Taken together, the proposed changes span $98.1 million in deposits supplied to the protocol and $15.6 million in borrowings. Of that total, the six smaller networks account for 25 reserves with $12.8 million in deposits and $4.1 million in debt. The remaining reserve and token removals make up $85.3 million in supplied assets and $11.5 million in outstanding loans.
How the wind-down would work
Under the governance proposal, affected reserves would first be frozen. Supply caps and borrowing caps would then be reduced to nominal levels, limiting new activity while existing positions are worked down.
For markets that still have active loans, the proposal outlines a stronger push to encourage exits. Higher reserve factors and higher interest rates would be used to incentivize repayments by borrowers and withdrawals by suppliers. The approach is designed to gradually reduce exposure rather than close markets abruptly while balances remain outstanding.
Why Aave says it is cutting markets
According to the proposal, each listed asset creates fixed operating costs for the protocol. Those costs include oracle maintenance, risk monitoring, and the infrastructure needed to support liquidations if positions become unsafe.
Aave says revenue generated on the six smaller networks has dropped below those ongoing costs, making the deployments less economical to maintain. The stated objective of the overhaul is to reduce both economic risk and technical complexity by trimming markets that no longer justify their operational burden.
Founder backs broader refocus
Aave founder Stani Kulechov said the move follows what he described as a comprehensive review of the protocol’s market footprint. He said the process is ongoing and framed the changes as part of a continuing effort to reduce Aave’s economic and technical risk surface.
The proposal also reflects a broader allocation decision. Aave says it wants to direct more resources toward larger, more established markets, while also preparing to support newer areas such as securities finance.
At the same time, the plan does not dismiss smaller scaling environments altogether. It notes that layer-2 networks remain important to Ethereum’s user experience even as Aave pulls back from a set of less productive deployments.
The proposal now stands as a significant rationalization effort for one of decentralized finance’s largest lending protocols. If adopted through governance, it would leave Aave with a leaner market lineup built around higher-usage venues, while retiring markets that the protocol says no longer cover their own costs or fit its current priorities.
Source: news.bitcoin.com