Aave Deprecates 50 Low-Adoption Assets, Winds Down Six Chains

Aave, the largest DeFi lending protocol, is set to retire 50 low-adoption asset reserves and shut down six entire chains. According to a governance proposal posted by risk provider LlamaRisk, this move will affect $98.1 million in supplied assets and $15.6 million in outstanding debt.

The reserve removals cover 50 reserves plus 21 matured Pendle principal tokens across eleven deployments, holding $85.3 million of supply. The six whole-market shutdowns add 25 reserves and $12.8 million.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov stated that the move 'should not be interpreted as a view on any L1 or L2' and clarified that the goal is to reduce operational, technical, and economic risk so Aave can focus on higher-impact priorities such as growing existing high-value markets.

The proposal does not shut markets abruptly. Each reserve will be frozen, supply and borrow caps dropped to 1, and reserve factors will rise (to 99% on the six retiring deployments) alongside a 5% base borrow rate.