Latest news with #Aave
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Aave votes to launch white-label lending protocol on Kraken's Ink blockchain
Aave, the largest DeFi lending protocol, is set to launch on Kraken's Ink blockchain. The Aave DAO proposal, created on July 17, aims to deploy a centralised version of Aave's lending market on Ink. The new protocol will be controlled by the Ink Foundation under a new name, with a portion of revenue going back to the DAO. 'By granting a license to deploy a centralized version of the Aave codebase, Aave can expand its technology adoption while creating new revenue streams through partnerships with innovative platforms,' the proposal states. Coming at a time when deposits into DeFi lending protocols are hitting record highs, Ink is looking to tap into this market and take advantage of Aave's code. Aave currently controls about half of the $65 billion lending market, according to DefiLlama. With nearly $32 billion in deposits, it is currently the secod-largest DeFi protocol. Ink blockchain Kraken, the US-based centralised exchange, launched its layer 2 blockchain Ink in December 2024. The launch was met with little enthusiasm, bringing in less than $1 million in deposits within the first month. With a fewer than two-dozen protocols, the chain has yet to become a major player in the competitive layer 2 landscape. As of Friday, protocols on Ink had just over $9 million in deposits, placing the blockchain well outside the top 100. Volumes on decentralised exchanges on Ink have also underwhelmed, falling from a peak of about $195 million in May to $67 million in June. Other centralised exchange-backed layer 2s have seen more success. Coinbase's Base has over $5.7 billion in deposits while ByBit's Mantle has over $250 million. To buck this trend and encourage new users to join the blockchain, the Ink Foundation in June announced the upcoming release of an Ink token, along with several incentives for the blockchain's users. 'The first use case for Ink tokens will be built around a liquidity protocol powered by Aave,' the Foundation said. 'To reward early usage, Ink tokens will be distributed to participants of the liquidity protocol through an airdrop.' Among the incentives are multiple 'liquidity mining' programs, according to the Aave proposal. Those programs are expected to draw $250 million to the yet-to-be-named Aave deployment on Ink. Initially, 4% of the total Ink token supply has been allocated to users of Aave's new lending platform. In addition to this, the Aave DAO will allocate a portion of Aave tokens and its stablecoin GHO as further bootstrapping incentives. The Ink Foundation agreed to exclusively work with Aave for at least 12 months after deployment, refraining from communicating or integrating with any other lending protocols. Currently, the proposal is receiving almost universal support from the Aave community, receiving about 412,000 votes in favour compared to only 1,600 against. Voting ends on July 21. Zachary Rampone is a DeFi correspondent at DL News. Have a tip? Contact him at zrampone@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Euler DAO votes to boost revenue 414% with new fees amid red-hot lending competition
Euler DAO, the crypto collective behind the popular lending protocol, is voting on a proposal to selectively increase fees on its products, potentially boosting revenue by 414%. If passed, the proposal will add a 10% fee on Euler Prime stablecoin vaults and a 10% fee on all Euler Yield vaults. Fees on all other products will remain the same. 'The selective strategy is smarter because the fee rate can be adjusted to suit the unique profiles of lenders and borrowers in each vault,' Anton Totomanov, founder of Objective Labs, told DL News. Objective Labs, a risk management partner of Euler Labs, devised the proposal's fee recommendations. According to Objective Labs' calculations, the new fees will increase the DAO's annual revenue from $714,000 to over $3.6 million, giving the crypto collective a bigger pool of funds to play with. However, the new fees will cut into the profit that Euler users can earn on their crypto. Some could look elsewhere for better places to deposit their assets. Euler is a DeFi lending protocol similar to Aave. It is made up of dozens of vaults where users can borrow crypto against various forms of collateral, such as other crypto assets or even DeFi protocol deposits. In 2023, the protocol was hit by a $200 million hack. Although the attacker later returned the funds, the incident shook investor confidence in Euler, and the protocol remained dormant for over a year before relaunching in September. Increased competition In recent months, competition among DeFi lenders has intensified as the market reaches an all-time high of $112 billion. Earlier this month, Aave's DAO voted to launch a white-label lending protocol on Kraken's Ink blockchain in a bid to tap into the centralised exchange's customer base. In January, Morpho did something similar when it signed a deal with Coinbase to facilitate Bitcoin-backed loans for the exchange's customers. Other DeFi lenders, such as Maple and Sky, are also locked in battle over institutional customers. Euler adding more fees at such a critical time could be risky. The protocol held off doing so initially to be as attractive and competitive as possible when it relaunched. But now the protocol has grown to almost $2.5 billion in deposits, it could add fees without having a negative impact, Seini, the proposal's pseudonymous author said. Balancing act Totomanov said that introducing fees to the Euler Yield vaults is unlikely to have a negative impact because they are already designed to offer higher yields to investors by taking on more risk. However, for other vaults, such as those facilitating the lending and borrowing of Ethereum, adding a fee could be more detrimental. That's because 90% of Ethereum borrowers on Euler are engaged in looping, a strategy where lenders juice their Ethereum staking yields by repeatedly depositing and borrowing Ethereum. These users are particularly sensitive to changes in borrowing rates. Last week, the sudden withdrawal of $1.7 billion in Ethereum from Aave caused Ethereum borrowing rates to spike, triggering a scramble to unwind looping trades. 'Charging high fees on ETH inside Euler Prime would lead to a modest revenue increase while possibly leading to outflows,' Totomanov said, explaining why Objective Labs decided not to implement a fee on Euler Prime's Ethereum market. So far, 100% of voters support enabling fees in accordance with Objective Labs' recommendations, or going further and giving the firm full control over fee management. The vote is set to end on Wednesday. Tim Craig is DL News' Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ethereum Wallet MetaMask Adds Stablecoin Yield With DeFi Giant Aave
MetaMask, the Ethereum-based crypto wallet, is offering its users the ability to earn interest on their stablecoins thanks to a new partnership with decentralized lending protocol Aave. The feature, called Stablecoin Earn, gives MetaMask's million-plus users access to yield on USDC, USDT and DAI without leaving their wallet. The earnings come from Aave's lending infrastructure, which offers yield in exchange for depositing assets that can be borrowed by others. Stablecoins, which have become one of the hottest areas in crypto thanks in part to new legislation in the U.S., grew out of the DeFi space initially. Earning passive yield on stablecoins inside the MetaMask wallet, which has been focused on staking services and Web3 access, removes the need to navigate complex decentralized finance (DeFi) interfaces or third-party platforms, the company said. MetaMask, built by core Ethereum development firm Consensys back in 2016 has a solid partner in Aave, which claims to be the largest DeFi lending protocol by total value locked at over $50 billion. The Mastercard-powered MetaMask payment card is also part of the integration, the companies said, allowing users to spend Aave's yield-bearing aUSDC directly in real-world transactions while continuing to earn yield until the moment of spending. 'MetaMask is the most popular way for people to access Web3, with millions of users. This partnership brings DeFi earning opportunities straight into the wallets people already use, helping them get more from their assets and take control of their financial future,' said Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave Labs in a statement. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Aave whales withdraw $1.7bn in Ethereum and trigger scramble to unwind looping trades
Decentralised finance whales have pulled a whopping $1.7 billion worth of Ethereum from lending protocol Aave over the past week. As a result, available liquidity has shrunk and temporarily sent the interest rate the protocol charges borrowers to more than 10%. That's good news for those lending out their Ethereum, who enjoyed a brief spike in the amount their deposits earned. But for investors on the other side of the table it's a different story. Unwinding positions Those engaged in looping, a strategy to juice their Ethereum staking yields by repeatedly depositing and borrowing from the market, suddenly started losing money. They unwound their positions en masse, resulting in liquid staking providers needing to unstake Ethereum. The queue to exit staking swelled to over 627,944 Ethereum, worth roughly $2.3 billion, on Wednesday, the highest it has ever been, according to data from Ethereum borrowing rates have since almost returned to their pre-withdrawal levels. But the episode showed how the actions of a few wealthy DeFi users can create ripple effects across the DeFi landscape. Aave is the biggest lending protocol on Ethereum, with over $55 billion of deposits, per DefiLlama data. Users can deposit assets, like Ethereum, and earn interest when other users borrow them. Whale's game Most of the $1.7 billion in withdrawals can be attributed to a few entities. Marc Zeller, an Aave contributor, told DL News he believed crypto billionaire Justin Sun was behind the majority of the Ethereum withdrawals. Zeller said that the Tron founder regularly moves large amounts in and out of the lending protocol. 'He's just unpredictable,' Zeller said on Telegram. 'He's moving billions like I go grocery shopping.' Wallets tagged by users as belonging to Sun on Arkham, a crypto data platform, withdrew more than $646 million worth of Ethereum from Aave over the past three days, onchain records show. A wallet belonging to crypto exchange HTX also withdrew a net of $455 million worth of Ethereum from Aave over the past week. Sun serves as an advisor to HTX and is a prominent figure in its public-facing activities, often promoting the platform and its initiatives. 'He's moving billions like I go grocery shopping.' Wallets attributed to Sun by Arkham still hold another $80 million worth of Ethereum on Aave. Sun did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Several more entities also pulled smaller amounts of Ethereum from Aave, including Abraxas Capital Management, a London-based investment manager. It withdrew a net $115 million worth of the cryptocurrency over the past week. Looping risks The whale withdrawals of Ethereum from Aave shrunk the available supply of the asset on the platform. When this happens the protocol is designed to increase the interest rate charged to borrowers. When the interest rate jumped it meant that looping strategies which depended on the interest rate for borrowing Ethereum staying low, reversed, and started losing investors' money. Those investors unwound their positions, queuing millions of dollars worth of Ethereum for withdrawal from the network's staking contract via liquid staking providers, and creating the large backlog. Only a certain amount of Ethereum can be unstaked at a time. It will take the network almost eleven days to unstake the backlog of 627,944 Ethereum, according to While looping can be very profitable for those who do it, the practice is also fraught with risks. In April last year, investors on Blast-based protocol Pac Finance were left reeling after a code change liquidated users looping staked Ethereum tokens, costing them $26 million. Tim Craig is DL News' Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Q2 2025: From Balance Sheets to Benchmarks
What looked like a rebound at first glance reflected something deeper; a change in the nature of demand. As digital assets rallied, institutional flows became more targeted, and corporate balance sheets emerged as a key driver of market structure. Bitcoin rose 29.8%, reaching a new all-time high in June, according to CoinDesk Data, but it was the nature of the buyers, not just the size of the move, that marked a turning point. With public companies increasing their BTC holdings by nearly 20%, and expanding into assets like ETH, SOL and XRP, corporate treasury adoption has entered a new phase, with the potential to reshape the asset landscape. Corporate treasuries take the lead Bitcoin's performance in Q2 was not led by retail flows or leveraged positions. Instead, capital came from corporate treasuries. Public companies added nearly 850,000 BTC to their balance sheets by quarter-end, marking a 19.6% increase. For the third consecutive quarter, corporates outpaced ETFs in net accumulation, reinforcing the shift in long-term holders. The message from listed firms was clear: bitcoin is moving from speculation to allocation. Bitcoin is no longer the only asset benefiting from this trend. Public companies now hold over $1.4 billion in altcoins. ETH accounts for the majority, but firms are increasingly looking beyond the top two. Solana has seen corporate accumulation, while TRX, XRP and even BNB are beginning to feature in strategic announcements. Nano Labs, for example, unveiled a $1 billion initiative to accumulate BNB. Meanwhile, Tridentity and are planning substantial capital raises to support XRP buys. This level of activity, previously confined to BTC, is now spreading across the broader market. ETH reclaims market share, Aave tops index rankings Ethereum, which had lagged in earlier quarters, reclaimed its footing with a 36.4% rise in Q2, CoinDesk Data shows. Flows into ETH ETFs turned positive, and have now remained so for eight consecutive weeks. Adjusted for market cap, these flows are nearly on par with BTC, marking a convergence in sentiment. The 30% uplift in ETH/BTC hinted at a strategic rebalancing, with allocators rotating back into ether. Beyond ETH, Aave delivered the strongest performance within the CoinDesk 20 Index, gaining 72% in the quarter based on CoinDesk Data, as lending activity hit all-time highs and vePENDLE collateral was added to the protocol. Institutional relevance is beginning to take shape here too. The upcoming Aave v4 upgrade, along with the Horizon initiative aimed at tokenised real-world assets, positions the protocol for greater adoption beyond crypto-native circles. Solana keeps pace, but loses spotlight Solana returned 24.3% in the quarter, according to CoinDesk Data, and retained its position as the leading chain by application-level revenue. However, it underperformed both bitcoin and ether. Despite solid fundamentals, investor flows were directed elsewhere. Capital concentrated in assets with more mature ETF infrastructure and longer-established treasury narratives. Even the launch of the REX-Osprey Solana staking ETF, which attracted $12 million on its debut trading day, was not enough to reignite momentum. That said, investor interest is still building. The recent token generation event is drawing attention from both ends of the spectrum. On one side are speculative participants, while on the other are value-driven investors assessing the project's revenue potential. Treasury activity also continues to rise, with over one million SOL now held by corporations such as SOL Strategies and DeFi Development Corp. Narrower gains, clearer signals The second quarter confirmed what the first quarter had suggested: leadership in digital assets is narrowing, and the market is rewarding clarity. The CoinDesk 20 Index rose by 22.1%, although only four constituents outperformed it: Aave, bitcoin cash, ether and bitcoin. The CoinDesk 80 declined by 0.78%, while the CDMEME Index ended the quarter up 27.8% despite a 109% spike in May (based on data from CoinDesk Indices). Outside the majors, most assets lacked consistent inflows or structural support, leaving them prone to retracements. Bitcoin and ether both saw their index weights decline by over five percentage points. This made space for assets that posted stronger returns, but it did not meaningfully change the composition of leadership. Aave and BCH still represent a small fraction of the index, reflecting the reality that outperformance alone is not enough to shift structural weightings. Liquidity and credibility remain prerequisites. Benchmarks as allocation tools As adoption broadens and corporate behaviour becomes more material to price action, benchmarks are playing a more active role in capital decisions. With more than $15 billion in cumulative trading volume since launch, the CoinDesk 20 is now both a measure of market direction and a foundation for building structured exposure. The rally in Q2 was real, but more importantly, it was orderly. Allocators are not trend-chasers. They are building frameworks. Benchmarks, indices and ETFs are at the centre of this evolution. As digital assets move from the edges of portfolios to their core, tools that bring discipline and structure become increasingly important. For full performance details and constituent analysis, you can explore the Q2 Digital Assets Quarterly Report. Disclaimer: All price, index and performance figures references are sourced from CoinDesk Data and CoinDesk Indices unless stated otherwise. Sign in to access your portfolio
