Sherlock Audit Contest 1209 Now Live

Aave has published its comprehensive 2025 annual recap, documenting the protocol's developments and milestones throughout the year. The open-source, non-custodial liquidity protocol shared key achievements and metrics from its operations over the past twelve months. **Key highlights include:** - Protocol performance metrics and growth data - Technical developments and upgrades - Community governance activities - Integration updates across supported networks The full report provides detailed insights into how the protocol evolved and served its users throughout 2025. [Read the complete 2025 recap](https://aave.com/blog/aave-2025-recap)

Aave is positioning itself to bring the next trillion dollars and millions of users onchain through three key initiatives: - **Aave V4**: After two years of development, V4 launched on testnet with a new architecture that expands beyond onchain collateral, enabling new DeFi lending use cases. Mainnet launch planned for 2026. - **Unified Liquidity**: V4 will unify Aave's liquidity across the protocol, benefiting both users and builders while positioning Aave at the center of next-generation financial applications. - **Network Effect**: When Plasma launched in September, it attracted $1.3 billion in the first hour and $6.6 billion within 48 hours, demonstrating Aave's ability to drive adoption for both assets and networks. Aave is approaching $1 trillion in total loans originated since launch, marking a significant milestone as it prepares for its next phase of growth.

Aave Labs announced **Aave App**, a mobile savings application designed to make DeFi accessible to mainstream users. **Key Features:** - User-friendly savings tool with industry-leading rates - Zero-fee onramping - Up to $1M in balance protection - Powered by Aave Protocol (currently managing over $50B in deposits with 2.5M+ users) The app is designed to pass the "Fintech Test" - users shouldn't be able to tell it's blockchain-powered, which Aave Labs considers critical for mass adoption. This launch follows 2025's trend of embedded DeFi, where Aave partnered with various consumer apps and wallet infrastructure providers, particularly in Latin America. The [waitlist is now open](https://aave.com/app) for early access.

**Horizon**, Aave's real-world asset (RWA) market, has emerged as the **largest and fastest-growing venue** for RWA-backed loans in decentralized finance. The platform achieved this milestone in **less than six months** since launch, demonstrating significant demand for bridging traditional assets with DeFi lending. - Grove Finance is expanding Horizon's capacity by supplying RLUSD and USDC - This additional liquidity will provide more depth for RWA-backed borrowing - The growth signals increasing institutional and retail interest in tokenized real-world assets The rapid adoption of Horizon reflects a broader trend of traditional finance infrastructure integrating with decentralized protocols.

Aave's stablecoin GHO experienced significant growth in 2025, with its total supply increasing threefold over the year. This expansion represents a major milestone for one of Aave's core business lines, demonstrating growing adoption of the protocol's native stablecoin across the DeFi ecosystem. The growth comes as Aave continues to expand its product offerings, including the recent introduction of Aave v4 and GHO's deployment across multiple blockchain networks.