Aave launches on Aptos in first non-EVM deployment as part of multichain strategy
Decentralized finance's largest lending provider, Aave, has launched on Aptos, marking its first deployment on a non-EVM blockchain and advancing the protocol’s multichain strategy.
At launch, Aave supports native USDC, USDT, APT, and sUSDe on Aptos. Also, the Aptos Foundation will provide user rewards and liquidity incentives to spur adoption. At the same time, Chainlink Price Feeds are integrated to power oracle-secured markets, according to details shared exclusively with The Block.
Aave is a decentralized liquidity protocol governed by the Aave DAO, with over $50 billion in net deposits and nearly $37 billion total value locked as DeFi's second-largest platform, The Block’s data dashboard shows. It lets users and institutions earn interest on deposits and borrow crypto against collateral, and also issues the overcollateralized GHO stablecoin.
Aptos runs as a proof-of-stake Layer 1 network built in Move, a Rust-based smart-contract language that developers say emphasizes low-latency finality and high throughput to attract new onchain builders.
“This launch on Aptos is a big step in Aave’s multichain strategy,” Aave Labs founder Stani Kulechov said, adding that operating across different blockchains is core to building a global, open financial system. Aptos Foundation’s Ash Pampati called the debut a “major milestone” for the network’s Global Trading Engine vision, and Chainlink Labs’ Johann Eid said the collaboration extends a long-running integration between the oracle provider and Aave.
Under the hood
To ship on Aptos, Aave Labs re-implemented Aave V3 in Move, built a new front-end and SDK, and completed architecture reviews, testing, and audits to meet performance and security standards on the network, the teams said. Chaos Labs and LlamaRisk developed risk parameters. Security reviews were conducted by Zellic, Ottersec, SpearBit (Cantina), and Certora. Aave is also offering a $500,000 bug bounty, paid in GHO, alongside earlier security contests run with Cantina.
The launch targets Aptos’s growing stablecoin base —worth about $1.3 billion and dominated by Tether’s USDT — and looks to unlock new collateral markets, including liquid staking tokens. According to the team, only about 8.1% of APT is in LSTs compared with 76% directly staked, which Aave and Aptos see as a sizable opportunity to deepen borrowing and lending activity.
Why it matters and what's next
Aptos positions itself as a high-performance Layer 1 for consumer apps, digital finance, stablecoins, and real-world assets, with participation from traditional institutions cited in recent ecosystem updates.
The Aave deployment is intended to serve as a liquidity engine for that growth. Historically, chains that add Aave have seen faster TVL expansion than those without, the teams noted. Aptos will likely aim to tap that pattern, given that user transactions have drastically dwindled over the past year.
Both protocols expect the release will provide developers with direct access to Aave’s lending infrastructure on Aptos, full tooling support, and a path to build onchain financial applications using a protocol that the teams say secures tens of billions in net deposits across networks. For users and institutions, it brings familiar borrowing/lending primitives, MEV-resilient oracle feeds, and incentive programs at launch.
In the future, Aave and Aptos said they plan to expand supported assets, iterate risk settings as markets mature, and continue security programs to harden the new deployment. The teams also framed the launch as a template for future non-EVM expansions, which would be subject to Aave DAO governance.
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