Aave approved a governance proposal to shut down six Aave V3 deployments that were not generating sufficient revenue and to delist several underutilized assets. The measure affects approximately $98.1 million in deposited funds and nearly $15.6 million in outstanding loans, but aims to reduce operating costs and focus resources on the networks that are truly driving the protocol’s growth.
The networks selected for exit are Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos, all of which have quarterly revenues below $5,000, according to the proposal approved by the DAO. For Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave, the goal is not to abandon the multichain approach, but to reduce the protocol’s technical, economic, and operational risk exposure.
After a comprehensive review, Aave is deprecating 50 low adoption asset reserves across multiple deployments.
In addition, Aave is orderly winding down deployments on Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos, covering another 25 asset reserves.
As part of this process,…
— Stani (@StaniKulechov) July 30, 2026
Unlike an abrupt shutdown, Aave designed a gradual transition to avoid forced liquidations. The protocol froze new deposits and loans in those markets, reduced supply and borrowing limits to the absolute minimum, raised reserve factors to 99%, and increased the base lending rate to 5%. With these measures, users have time to close or transfer their positions, although remaining on those networks is becoming progressively less attractive.
Risk Is Rising in DeFi
The decision is part of the new risk management framework that Aave has been implementing following several episodes of stress in DeFi over the past few years. This model requires each deployment to justify its maintenance costs, including oracles, settlement infrastructure, and continuous monitoring. In other words, simply being present on a blockchain is no longer enough; each market must demonstrate that it adds economic value to the protocol.
The move also reflects a shift in priorities. Instead of continuing to expand into new networks, Aave wants to focus its efforts on Ethereum, Base, the development of Aave V4, and Aave Horizon, its initiative for institution-oriented solutions.
Although the exit will reduce the available liquidity on the affected chains, no significant impact is expected on the DeFi ecosystem as a whole. Rather, the decision sets a precedent: from now on, Aave’s expansion will be much more closely tied to criteria of profitability and sustainability than to the mere growth of its multi-chain presence.
