Aave Proposes to Deprecate 50 Assets and Wind Down Six Networks

• Aave proposes removing 50 low-adoption reserves and winding down six deployments to reduce risk.
• The deprecation process affects $98.1M in supply and $15.6M in outstanding debt.
• Sonic Scroll, zkSync Metis, Soneium and Aptos markets face full wind-down measures.

Aave is proposing to deprecate dozens of low-adoption asset reserves across its lending deployments as part of a broader effort to reduce operational and technical exposure. The founder of the decentralized finance protocol, Stani Kulechov, said Aave is deprecating 50 asset reserves across multiple deployments while also winding down markets on Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos.

The changes affect $98.1 million in supply and $15.6 million in outstanding debt as the protocol applies its updated Risk Framework and Technical Asset Listing Framework. The proposals will require governance approval before the changes are implemented. 

The decision follows a review of asset activity across Aave markets, with the affected reserves including low-usage assets and matured Pendle Principal Tokens (PTs).

Aave Targets Low-Adoption Reserves

The reserve removals cover multiple Aave V3 deployments where certain assets no longer meet the activity requirements for continued support. According to the review, each reserve requires ongoing operational resources, including Oracle maintenance, risk parameter monitoring, and liquidation infrastructure.

The individual reserve removals cover 50 reserves and 21 matured Pendle PTs across 11 deployments, representing $85.3 million in supply and $11.5 million in debt. The separate whole-market deprecation across six deployments accounts for another 25 reserves, representing $12.8 million in supply and $4.1 million in debt.

The review identified several asset categories affected by the changes. Bridged assets such as USDC.e and USDbC are being removed where native versions are already supported, while MaticX is being wound down after its issuer began sunsetting the token. Matured Pendle PTs are also being removed because they no longer serve an active lending function.

Six Aave Deployments Proposed for Wind-Down 

Beyond individual reserve removals, Aave is also winding down entire deployments on Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos. The review found that activity levels across these markets had declined, resulting in lower usage than required to maintain them.

The Sonic deployment holds $7.6 million in supply, followed by Scroll with $2.2 million, Aptos with $1.7 million, zkSync with $800,000, Metis with $300,000, and Soneium with $200,000. Together, these markets account for the $12.8 million in supply included in the whole-market depreciation process.

Wind-Down Process Limits New Exposure

Aave’s deprecation process involves freezing affected reserves and reducing supply and borrow caps to one. For reserves carrying borrow positions, reserve factors will also be increased to direct more interest toward the protocol treasury while encouraging users to withdraw supplied assets and repay outstanding debt.

For the six fully deprecated deployments, Aave will apply the same measures across all reserves. Borrowing-related assets will have reserve factors increased to 99%, while the interest rate model base rate will be set to 5%.

The protocol said that further adjustments may be applied depending on how remaining positions develop, including possible changes to the interest rate model or adjustments to the liquidation threshold, where necessary.

Related: Aave Expands V4 to Avalanche to Accelerate Tokenized Asset Lending