Aave weighs closing 6 V3 blockchain markets, offboarding 50 low-use reserves

Aave is considering closing its V3 lending markets on six blockchains—Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos—and removing about 50 low-use token reserves. This planned wind-down would impact markets representing $98.1 million in supplied assets and $15.6 million in outstanding debt, according to an Aave Risk Framework Check (ARFC) proposal shared on July 31, 2026. The recommendation came from DeFi risk management service LlamaRisk, which analyzed data from July 28 and worked with other Aave service providers.

Many of the targeted markets had already been frozen before the proposal, specifically those on Scroll, zkSync, Metis, and Soneium. Sonic and Aptos remained active at the time of the report but were also recommended for freezing due to underperformance. For example, the Aptos market was launched just 11 months prior but saw liquidity decline by 94% in six months, with quarterly revenue dropping below $1,000, signaling low user engagement and financial viability.

This action follows a December 2025 community checkpoint where Aave users voted—by a margin of more than 99%—to increase reserve factors on underperforming markets, shut down instances on zkSync, Metis, and Soneium, and set a $2 million annual revenue minimum for new deployments. Scroll was subsequently added to the deprecation list in April after liquidity and market activity rapidly deteriorated. The protocol also updated its risk framework in June, formalizing criteria for assessing asset, bridge, and chain risks alongside guidelines for winding down reserves.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov emphasized that this cleanup does not represent a withdrawal from the platform’s multichain expansion strategy but rather a strategic refocus on more viable deployments to reduce economic and technical risks. The move is part of ongoing risk management efforts following the recent launch of Aave on Avalanche and the adoption of the new Aave Risk Framework and Technical Asset Listing Framework. The proposal currently remains a precursor to an official Aave Improvement Proposal and has not yet been finalized or executed on-chain.