Aave, one of the leading decentralized lending protocols, may soon sunset its V3 markets on six different blockchains and remove dozens of low-usage token listings, following recommendations from its risk advisor, LlamaRisk. The proposed cleanup would impact $98.1 million in assets supplied and $15.6 million in outstanding debt across these networks.
Proposal to Offboard Low-Use Assets
LlamaRisk, working in coordination with other Aave service providers, advised winding down 50 reserves with limited activity and retiring 21 matured principal token listings issued by Pendle. This review spanned 11 deployments of the Aave protocol, seeking to streamline operations and reduce exposure to underperforming assets.
Additionally, the proposal calls for the retirement of every reserve—25 in total—on the Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos networks. Asset and debt balances for these markets were measured as of July 28.
Mini dictionary: Pendle principal tokens, or PTs, are tokens representing the principal component of yield-bearing assets, separated from their future yield for advanced DeFi trading strategies.
Aave utilizes a structured governance process. An ARFC—Aave Request for Comment—serves as an early-stage, detailed proposal and a precursor to a formal onchain vote via an Aave Improvement Proposal (AIP). The current steps remain preliminary and do not equate to final execution.
Focus on Risk Reduction and Refined Strategy
The proposal includes Aave’s departure from the Aptos blockchain, less than a year after launching its V3 market on the network. LlamaRisk reported a 94% drop in liquidity on Aptos over the past six months, with the latest quarterly revenue falling below $1,000.
On several other chains—namely Scroll, zkSync, Metis, and Soneium—all reserves were already frozen due to inactivity or risk concerns. The remaining active markets on Sonic and Aptos are also being considered for freezing. Aave completed a temperature check on its multichain expansion strategy on December 5, 2025, with over 923,000 votes in favor and less than 1% voting against a plan to increase reserve factors on weak markets, close instances on zkSync, Metis, and Soneium, and implement a $2 million annual revenue requirement for launching new market deployments.
| Network | Affected Reserves | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Scroll | All | Frozen |
| zkSync | All | Frozen |
| Metis | All | Frozen |
| Soneium | All | Frozen |
| Sonic | All | Active, proposed for freeze |
| Aptos | All | Active, proposed for freeze |
Scroll was later included among the networks winding down after an expedited proposal in April, in which LlamaRisk recommended freezing all reserves and raising reserve factors in response to rapid declines in liquidity and Aave protocol activity on the network.
New Governance and Risk Frameworks
Aave released an updated risk management policy on June 9, introducing clearer guidelines on asset, bridge, monitoring, and chain risk, as well as explicit criteria for sunsetting low-performing deployments. This latest governance proposal, alongside the recent announcements, demonstrates the alignment of protocol activity with these new frameworks.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov emphasized that this process would “reduce Aave’s economic and technical risk surface as part of the new Aave Risk Framework and Technical Asset Listing Framework.”
Despite the planned offboarding of certain tokens and blockchains, Aave will continue to monitor risk across all its markets. Kulechov confirmed that this move does not signal a retreat from multichain ambitions but represents a strategic refocusing on the highest-performing networks. Earlier this month, Aave expanded its operations by launching on Avalanche.
In Kulechov’s view, “Aave will continue applying continuous risk assessment for all assets across all deployments.”
