The number of monthly active users on the DeFi lending protocol Aave reached approximately 155,000 in February, an all-time high and nearly doubling in the past six months.
The increase in the number of users comes as investors increasingly seek returns through decentralized lending protocols, according to data from on-chain analytics platform Token Terminal.
Sean Dawson, head of research at on-chain options platform Derive, said Declutter that market dynamics appeared to be the main driver behind the increase in the number of users.
“The biggest trade in crypto, the basic trade, has collapsed in recent months,” Dawson said. “Users used to be able to earn 10-30% or just by holding sUSDe, now it is less than 4%.”
Broader structural shifts in crypto trading strategies are also pushing capital into lending platforms, he said.
“The result is that users have few places to park money at low risk – leaving borrowing as the only remaining option,” he added.
Peter Chung, head of research at Presto Labs, said Declutter That AafThe company’s long-standing role in decentralized finance infrastructure likely explains the continued growth of its user base.
“DeFi companies are largely experimental, but a select few have firmly established themselves as critical on-chain financial infrastructure,” Chung said. “Aave is one of them. They have undergone some management changes recently, but are not sure there is any causality.”
The increase in user activity comes amid governance tensions within the Aave ecosystem.
Last week, the Aave Chan Initiative (ACI) said it would phase out, arguing that addresses linked to Aave Labs, including an 111,000 $AAVE A delegation from founder Stani Kulechov helped lead the “Aave Will Win” temperature check, a $51 million funding proposal that passed with 52.58% support.
ACI founder Marc Zeller said removing those votes would have reversed the outcome, while the group’s own exit post cited that there is “no role for an independent service provider” when the budget’s largest recipient can influence its own approval.
The departure follows BGD Labs, the team behind Aave’s V3 codebase, also stepping away due to strategic differences with Aave Labs, causing two key contributors to disappear in quick succession.
Despite the administrative turmoil, credit and lending activities continue to function normally under the protocol.
Aave currently holds a total value of nearly $27 billion across twenty blockchains, making it the dominant DeFi lending protocol by a wide margin, according to DeFiLlama. facts.
$AAVEthe protocol’s governance token, is trading around $107, down about 0.7% in the past 24 hours and about 83.8% below its 2021 all-time high of $661, according to CoinGecko data.
Looking ahead, Dawson said the protocol’s growth will depend on whether lending activity continues to grow.
“Continued growth on TVL is the key metric I would look at,” he said, adding that interest rate stability without large deposits or withdrawals in the coming months will also be an important signal for the protocol’s trajectory.