Aave has recorded $27.4 billion in average total value locked during August as active loans climbed to $11.7 billion and its share of tracked on-chain lending reached 47.8%.
Token Terminal’sAugust 2026 Aave report showed TVL rising 13.7% from July, while active loans increased 12.9%. Both metrics advanced for a second straight month and reached their highest monthly averages since April. The figures remain well below year-earlier levels, with TVL down 57.6% and active loans down 56.9% year over year.
The same report put August fees at $33.9 million, up 15.2% month over month, while DAO revenue rose 9.2% to $4.9 million. Interest produced $33.3 million, or 98.2% of fees, as outstanding borrowing increased across Aave markets.
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— Token Terminal 📊 (@tokenterminal) September 14, 2026
Aave lending activity recovered faster than the tracked market
Aave’s $11.7 billion active-loan balance represented 47.8% of the lending sector tracked by Token Terminal. Its market share increased 1.2 percentage points from July after reaching 45.5% in June. The tracked sector’s loan book expanded from $22.2 billion to $24.4 billion during August, with Aave growing 12.9% against 7.5% for the rest of the group.
Ethereum remained Aave’s main capital base, accounting for $22.9 billion, or 83.5%, of average August TVL. Ethereum active loans reached $9.6 billion, equal to 82.4% of the protocol total. Plasma ranked second by borrowing volume at $797.6 million, followed by Base at $328.2 million and Arbitrum at $316.6 million.
Borrowing was concentrated in WETH and stablecoins. Token Terminal put WETH loans at $4.1 billion, or 35.3% of outstanding debt. $USDT carried $2.7 billion and $USDC $2.6 billion, while USDe and USDT0 contributed $732.6 million and $702.8 million, respectively.
The rise in loans fed directly into protocol income. $USDC generated $9.6 million of August fees, $USDT produced $9.4 million and WETH contributed $7.9 million. The DAO retained $4.9 million in total revenue, with WETH markets accounting for $1.3 million.
Aave V4 grew faster as new lending routes went live
Aave V4 recorded average TVL of $442.3 million in August, up 53.4% from July. Average active loans increased faster, climbing 62.9% to $154.9 million. Token Terminal’s core V4 figures cover Ethereum and Avalanche and exclude the dedicated Ether.fi Cash instance on OP Mainnet.
Aave Labs reported a different point-in-time measure in its August development update, saying V4 deposits surpassed $800 million during the month and active loans reached a record. The figures are not directly comparable with Token Terminal’s $442.3 million monthly-average TVL because the measurement dates and included deployments differ.
By month-end, Token Terminal measured $567.4 million in deposits across the V4 deployments covered by its core series. USDG and weETH each held around $90 million, followed by WETH at $77.2 million, WBTC at $50.9 million and wstETH at $44.3 million.
Growth accelerated after Ether.fi moved its Cash borrowing backend to a dedicated Aave V4 instance on Optimism. Deposits on that separate instance increased from $17.5 million on Aug. 14 to $237.1 million by month-end, according to Token Terminal.
Ether.fi’s updated financial app uses an Aave market on Optimism to support borrowing against customers’ portfolios. The integration lets eligible users obtain stablecoin loans against supported collateral while retaining their underlying assets.
V4’s expansion continued beyond Optimism. Crypto.news reported Aave V4’s first deployment outside Ethereum on Avalanche in July, while a later report showed V4 deposits crossing $806 million during August.
Aave Labs said it is continuing work to support Coinbase Tokenized Stocks through a planned V4 deployment on Base. Crypto.news reported the launch of Coinbase’s tokenized stocks on Base on Aug. 24, covering Apple, Nvidia, Meta and Alphabet products for eligible non-U.S. investors.
Horizon and $GHO extended Aave’s growth beyond V3 lending
Aave Horizon, the protocol’s market for loans backed by tokenized real-world assets, averaged $371.6 million in TVL during August. The figure rose 6.1% from July and 1,456.2% from its first month a year earlier. Average Horizon active loans stood at $115.3 million.
$RLUSD was the largest supplied asset on Horizon at $161.7 million, while USTB accounted for $66.3 million and $GHO $59.9 million. $RLUSD dominated borrowing with $84.5 million in active debt, followed by $27.8 million in $GHO.
The market’s collateral pipeline remains active in September. A Securitize proposal seeks to add HINC, a tokenized high-yield fund sub-advised by Neuberger Berman, as supply-only Horizon collateral with $USDC, $GHO and $RLUSD available for borrowing. A separate Midas and Wellington-linked mWIN proposal remains in Aave governance.
Securitize’s HINC launch with Neuberger Berman, describing a portfolio centered on high-yield bonds alongside CLOs and leveraged loans.
$GHO reached an average market capitalization of $661.6 million in August, rising 13.1% monthly and 154.7% from a year earlier. Token Terminal said the stablecoin has now grown for 14 consecutive months.
$GHO governance has since moved borrowing and savings rates higher. TokenLogic’s August $GHO rate update raises the Ethereum Core borrowing rate from 3.75% to 4.25% in two stages and lifts the Aave Savings Rate paid to sGHO from 4.25% to 4.50%. The proposal estimated the extra savings cost at roughly $397,000 annually based on 158.6 million $GHO then deposited in sGHO.
User activity fell while Aave expanded distribution
Capital growth did not extend to wallet activity. Token Terminal recorded 68,900 monthly active users in August, down 3.8% from July and 35% from a year earlier. User activity fell for a fourth consecutive month to its lowest monthly average since February 2024.
Base had the largest share of users at 21,200, narrowly ahead of Ethereum at 21,000. Ethereum still held more than four-fifths of Aave’s capital, leaving the protocol’s user distribution much less concentrated than its TVL.
Aave has been expanding its consumer distribution while wallet counts decline. Aave App opened early access on iOS on Aug. 26 through its Ghost Pass referral program, with access scheduled to expand in batches. Android and web users remain on a waitlist.
Aave Labs’ September development priorities include continued work on Coinbase Tokenized Stocks, Stable Vaults, $GHO and the Aave App. Its governance forum is meanwhile considering activation of V4 Risk Stewards on Ethereum and Avalanche, which would give delegated risk managers limited authority to change specified Hub, Spoke and oracle parameters within governance-set caps and cooldown periods.
