Morpho and Aave Dominate Base Lending with Record $2.75 Billion in Loans

Base lending loans reached an all-time high of $2.75 billion on September 10, according to Artemis' reports. This milestone reflects the rapid growth of credit on Coinbase's Layer 2 network and highlights the significant share of Morpho and Aave in it.

Morpho accounts for approximately $3.94 billion of Base's total value locked (TVL) at around $4.56 billion, as stated by DeFiLlama. Active loans worth about $1.93 billion are given out by Morpho, while Aave V3 follows with a TVL of around $513 million and active loans worth $354 million.

The trend is not unique to Base, as Galaxy's estimate of total DeFi lending TVL was around $39.9 billion in July, with Aave and Morpho accounting for 53.1% of the share. Coinbase has also brought decentralized finance lending to its platform, allowing users to borrow USDC versus crypto.

However, this growth raises concerns about Base's dependence on a small number of protocols and collateral markets, as well as its reliance on one major distribution channel, Coinbase. This concentration may improve liquidity and capital efficiency but also increases the importance of smart-contract, oracle, curator, and collateral-risk controls.