Aave Labs said October brought a new high-water mark for Aave V4, with deposits rising past $1.5 billion and active loans exceeding $450 million. The monthly development update also marked the debut of the protocol’s first externally curated markets, launched through an integration with Sentora on Ethereum.
Beyond V4, the update covered governance, risk changes, product releases and protocol milestones, including Aave reaching $1.1 trillion in all-time borrow volume and the publication of an ARFC to establish an Aave Foundation intended to hold trademarks and related intellectual property for the protocol’s benefit.
V4 growth and curated markets
Aave Labs said Aave V4 set a new all-time high in deposits after crossing $1.5 billion in October. The team added that active loans on V4 moved above $450 million. On Base, a market for loans backed by tokenized stocks passed $9 million in deposits and neared $4 million in loans.
The month also brought the first externally curated markets on Aave V4. Under the proposed framework, Sentora operates a dedicated Hub and Spokes on Ethereum and curates collateral, risk parameters, interest-rate curves and oracles. Aave DAO retains contract ownership, receives 50% of instance revenue, and requires any risk-increasing changes to pass through a 48-hour timelock.
According to the update, three live markets now let users borrow RLUSD, PYUSD and OUSD against yield-bearing and blue-chip collateral.
New assets and Bitcoin collateral work
Aave Labs said new reserves went live on V4 during the month. Maple’s syrupUSDC was onboarded on Arc as collateral on the Maple Spoke with USDC as the borrowable asset. The team described it as the first reserve to use V4’s Risk Premium feature, which adjusts borrow rates based on collateral quality.
USDe was also onboarded to the Aave V4 Core instance on Avalanche, expanding the set of yield-bearing assets available there. In parallel, Aave Labs said it supported Babylon’s proposal to bring native BTC collateral to Aave V4 through Trustless Bitcoin Vaults.
Under that proposal, BTC would remain locked on the Bitcoin network without being wrapped, bridged or held by a custodian. The design calls for two new Spokes, the Babylon Spoke and the BTC Vault Swap Spoke. LlamaRisk has already published support and risk parameter recommendations, while the integration itself remains in the proposal stage.
Aave V3 security and risk changes
On the V3 side, Aave Labs said it published an ARFC for Aave V3.8, describing it as a non-invasive, security-focused release. The update said the version adds defense-in-depth improvements and will undergo audits by Certora and other third parties before it advances to an AIP.
The team also reported implementation of several risk-related changes. An oracle deprecation proposal for long-tail assets was executed across Aave V2 and V3, replacing certain Chainlink feeds deemed high or very high risk with fixed-price adapters and related parameter adjustments intended to help remaining positions wind down in an orderly way.
Another executed proposal raised the liquidation protocol fee for WBTC, WETH and wstETH on Aave V3 Ethereum Core, increasing the treasury’s share of liquidation bonuses. A separate revision to ETH and BTC collateral efficiency has been raised for execution, increasing loan-to-value ratios and liquidation thresholds on Ethereum Core, Arbitrum and Base, as well as collateral factors for the same assets on the Aave V4 Main Spoke.
Governance and product development
October governance work included five AIPs created by Aave Labs and technical review of eight AIPs submitted by other DAO service providers. Among the measures prepared by the team were proposals covering oracle deprecation for long-tail assets, the liquidation protocol fee increase, USDe onboarding on Avalanche and revisions to ETH and BTC collateral efficiency.
Outside core protocol changes, Aave Labs said the GHO borrow rate on Aave V3 Ethereum Core was lifted from 4.25% to 4.50% APR, while the GHO base rate on Aave V3 Ethereum Prime moved from 2.75% to 3.00%. The team also said it replaced the stkGhoMigrator contract with a newer version intended to make migrations more resilient without affecting user funds.
Product updates extended across Aave App, Aave Pro, Aave Interface and the web portal. Aave Pro added support for external curators starting with the Sentora markets, alongside a new Earn flow, a Borrow flow and a backend that now also powers the public API and SDK for Aave V4.
What comes next
For November, Aave Labs said its main priorities are to keep supporting the Babylon integration toward launch, move Aave V3.8 through audits and governance, and continue onboarding new assets to both Aave V3 and V4.
The team also plans to add position swaps and leverage to Aave Pro, support a V4 deployment on Tempo with a network assessment, and migrate app.aave.com to the new backend. Those items are the next confirmed steps outlined in the update, while several of the broader protocol changes remain subject to governance and audit processes.
Source: governance.aave.com