For existing borrowers, the immediate restriction remains the freeze. Aave said its contracts were unaffected and users could still withdraw and repay. Liquidations continue, but users cannot add collateral to frozen reserves; repaying debt is the available way to reduce liquidation risk, according to LlamaRisk’s response report.
The proposed caps are set roughly 2% above the **larger of pre-incident borrowing and current debt**, keeping outstanding loans below the limits. On Ethereum’s V3 Core market, the WETH cap would fall from 2.4 million to 1.79 million WETH. LlamaRisk said this limit uses current debt because it includes 19,762 WETH borrowed by a wallet it linked to the exploiter.
Repayments have left some reserves with more room below their proposed limits. Using LlamaRisk’s Oct. 30 snapshot at 4:52 a.m. ET, The Defiant calculates that Core $USDC would retain about 248.4 million $USDC of cap headroom, down from 678.4 million under the existing cap. Core $USDT would retain about 89.1 million $USDT, down from 619.1 million. Those gaps are not available for borrowing while the freeze stands.
Borrowing Headroom Under Existing and Proposed Caps
The Defiant calculations from LlamaRisk’s Oct. 30, 2026, 4:52 a.m. ET snapshot: cap minus reported debt, holding debt fixed. These are limits-based gaps, not available liquidity; new borrowing remains frozen.
Which Markets Face Cuts
On V3 Core, the affected assets are WETH, $USDT, $USDC, DAI, WBTC, EURC, $USDe and cbBTC. The $USDT cap would drop from 3.09 billion to 2.56 billion tokens, and $USDC from 2.7 billion to 2.27 billion.
The other V3 markets and assets covered are:
– **Prime (Ethereum):** WETH; **Plasma:** USDT0 and $USDe; **Base:** WETH and $USDC. – **Arbitrum:** $USDC, WETH, USD₮0 and WBTC; **Mantle:** USDT0; **Monad:** $USDC and USDT0. – **Avalanche:** $USDC and USDt; **Ink:** $USDC; **X Layer:** USD₮0. – **Polygon:** USDT0 and $USDC; **Optimism:** WETH; **Gnosis:** EURe.
On V4, draw caps limit how much each spoke can borrow from its liquidity hub. The Ethereum changes cover WETH on the Core Hub’s EtherFi Spoke, $USDG and $USDT on its Main Spoke, and $USDG on the Paxos Hub’s $USDG Maple Spoke. On Arc, they cover $USDC on the Core Hub’s Main Spoke and $USDC Maple Spoke.
$GHO reserves are excluded for separate work with the $GHO Stewards. V3 Horizon, which was not frozen, is also outside the proposal.
LlamaRisk said caps could be raised through the regular Risk Steward process as demand returns after reopening, subject to the 36-hour cooldown following each cap update.
