Aave's V4 protocol has attracted roughly $1.2 billion in deposits across Ethereum, Avalanche and Arc, founder Stani Kulechov said on Sept. 23, underscoring the decentralized lending protocol's rapid growth since the latest version launched on Ethereum earlier this year.

For lending protocols, deposit levels serve as a core measure of scale, since supplied assets form the liquidity base from which borrowing activity is facilitated.

Kulechov also addressed how V4 manages liquidity across different markets, explaining that the newest iteration relies on a Hub and Spoke architecture that connects liquidity while keeping risk controls specific to individual markets.

V4 Growth Spans Three Networks

Aave launched V4 on Ethereum in March after more than two years of development. The protocol later extended the version to Avalanche in July, its first deployment outside Ethereum, before Arc subsequently joined as another V4 network, extending Aave's reach toward institutional-oriented blockchain activity.

Spreading across multiple networks has become a common pattern among DeFi protocols looking to reach users and liquidity beyond a single home chain, and it raises the practical challenge of keeping liquidity and risk management coherent across environments — precisely the problem V4's architecture is built to address.

Aave's governance data showed deposits climbing sharply during September. V4 hubs held about $709 million as of Sept. 16, meaning the latest $1.2 billion figure reflects substantial growth in less than two weeks. Those figures are tracked in Aave's public governance data, giving a running view of how adoption develops across the three networks.

The expansion also includes third-party curators such as EtherFi, according to Kulechov. These integrations allow additional markets to tap into V4 infrastructure without having to build large liquidity pools of their own, since deposits pooled at the Hub level stay available to participating Spokes.

Hub-and-Spoke Model Targets Capital Efficiency

Under V4's design, a Liquidity Hub holds shared assets, while Spokes connect individual lending markets, each with its own collateral, risk parameters and liquidation rules. Markets remain isolated by default according to their risk conditions, though those with similar risk profiles can share liquidity through the Hub.

Kulechov said the approach can reduce liquidity fragmentation and improve capital utilization. The model marks a shift away from fully isolated lending markets: rather than requiring every new market to accumulate its own liquidity, eligible Spokes can access liquidity already available through a Hub.

Aave's broader strategy is also increasingly focused on tokenized real-world assets and institutional credit, and the growing V4 deposit base provides a larger liquidity foundation as the protocol expands into those markets. Signs to watch from here include further network rollouts, additional curator integrations and the pace of that push into tokenized assets and institutional credit.

Source: CryptoMeter io