Aave is preparing to move deeper into real-world asset finance as founder Stani Kulechov confirms plans for securities-backed loans and securities lending through the Aave V4 upgrade.
Aave V4 Expands Beyond Crypto Lending
Kulechov said on X on June 26 that the protocol would broaden its market beyond crypto-native collateral and target traditional assets. “Aave is expanding its TAM from Crypto assets to all assets with Securities-backed Loans and Securities Lending,” he wrote.
The plan would allow tokenized securities to be used as collateral for stablecoin loans. It would also support on-chain repurchase agreement transactions and direct lending of tokenized securities by investors.
A week earlier, on June 19, Kulechov described how Aave V4 could bring three parts of Wall Street securities financing onto blockchain rails. Those areas include collateralized loans backed by securities, repo agreements, and direct securities lending.
Large Markets Shape Aave Growth Strategy
The market size explains the direction of the proposal. Kulechov cited average daily U.S. repo exposure of about $12.6 trillion. He also pointed to $1.3 trillion in record margin financing and more than $400 billion in wealth-management securities-based loans.
Securities lending represents another major target. According to figures shared by Kulechov, the sector has about $4.6 trillion in lendable assets and produced a record $15 billion in revenue last year.
Those figures are far larger than DeFi lending. Aave remains the leading protocol in that market, with peak deposits of about $75 billion in 2025 and total borrowings above $1 trillion.
Under the proposed model, tokenized securities could secure borrowing in stablecoins such as GHO or other dollar-denominated tokens. Repo-style trades could settle on-chain in real time, while asset holders could lend tokenized securities directly and earn yield without intermediaries. Kulechov also described gold-backed loans as “a trillion-dollar opportunity long-term.”
Institutional Push Faces Adoption Risks
The securities plan follows Aave’s late-May shift toward a 12-month “revenue-led protocol strategy.” The protocol currently generates about $123 million in annualized revenue and has $12.4 billion in total value locked across more than 20 chains, based on DeFiLlama data.
Institutional interest has grown around Aave. Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick began coverage with a $3,500 AAVE price target for 2030. Grayscale has filed for an SEC-approved Aave ETF and valued AAVE between $80 and $100, with a $175 bull case tied to clearer tokenized asset rules.
Aave’s Horizon platform, built with VanEck, Circle, and Securitize, already supports institutional RWA lending. Still, adoption, regulation, and security remain hurdles. The April KelpDAO rsETH exploit moved over $290 million in stolen tokens through Aave markets. Chaos Labs and two other DAO service providers have also left or planned exits this year.
