Decentralized lending protocol Aave is pressing ahead with a significant consolidation of its multichain presence, moving to wind down six blockchain deployments and remove dozens of underper
Decentralized lending protocol Aave is pressing ahead with a significant consolidation of its multichain presence, moving to wind down six blockchain deployments and remove dozens of underperforming asset reserves.
Aave is deprecating 50 low-adoption asset reserves across multiple deployments. The protocol is also winding down its instances on Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos. A further 25 asset reserves and 21 matured Pendle principal tokens will be removed as part of the same cleanup. In total, the changes affect $98.1 million in supply and $15.6 million in debt.
Founder Stani Kulechov said the move is designed to reduce Aave's economic and technical risk exposure. The decision reflects a broader governance push that has been building since late 2025, when the Aave Chan Initiative (ACI) first proposed rolling back instances on chains that had "proven to lack product market fit."
Aave has historically taken a maximalist view when it comes to launching on new blockchains.The project is live on at least 18 chains, including a range of Ethereum Layer 2s as well as alternative Layer 1s like Aptos and Sonic. That approach is now being reversed for networks that have failed to generate meaningful activity.
The deprecation of the Scroll instance, for example, was accelerated following a rapid deterioration of on-chain liquidity and TVL, completing the wind-down by freezing all assets and increasing the reserve factor on select assets.
Low usage, TVL, and revenue contribution from these deployments continued to consume governance and operational resources while posing ongoing risk exposure. The consolidation is consistent with Aave's wider effort to tighten its operational footprint and focus resources on deployments that generate meaningful returns. Aave is by far the largest decentralized lending protocol, accounting for over 81% of total outstanding debt on Ethereum.
SourcesThe Block: Aave DAO mulls pulling back multichain strategyAave Governance: Scroll Instance Deprecation Proposal
