The total loan volume on the DeFi platform Aave has surpassed $1 trillion, making it the first project in the decentralized finance industry to reach this milestone.

Aave crossed $1 trillion all-time loans.

A first in DeFi history. pic.twitter.com/9zMKhtGq6R

— Aave (@aave) February 25, 2026

Stani Kulechov, CEO of Aave Labs, emphasized that the protocol has become "the backbone of on-chain lending."

We’ve crossed $1 trillion in lending volume, a historic milestone for Aave and DeFi as a whole.

A decade ago, DeFi and Aave didn’t exist. They were just ideas. Today, Aave stands as the backbone of on-chain lending, powering a new financial system that is open, global, and… https://t.co/quLb5C9CrX

— Stani.eth (@StaniKulechov) February 25, 2026

The team plans to position the platform as a primary liquidity source for traditional banks and fintech companies.

In August, to attract institutional investors, developers launched the Aave Horizon market on the Ethereum network. Here, large players borrow stablecoins against RWA. The first clients of the platform included VanEck, WisdomTree, and Securitize.

Aave confidently leads among lending platforms, with a total value locked in the protocol exceeding $26.9 billion.

Source: DeFiLlama.

This record coincided with disputes within the community. Aave Labs is requesting the DAO to allocate funding for developers: $42.5 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE tokens. This agreement has sparked debates over the distribution of control over the project's revenues.

It is worth noting that starting April 1, BGD Labs, one of Aave's key technical developers, will cease collaboration with the platform due to "radical changes" in the DAO structure.