Coinbase-issued tokenized stocks went live on Base on Monday, starting with fractional shares of Apple and Nvidia. Every eligible user outside the United States can now hold a claim on real equity in a self-custody wallet, trade it on Aerodrome, or post it as collateral on Aave, with AERO climbing more than 13% on the day. Each token corresponds to a share held by Alpaca, a regulated broker and custodian, and the holder has a direct claim on that share rather than exposure to a derivative tracking its price. Coinbase built it on a token standard called B20, which handles dividends and stock splits without changing token balances, so an open lending position or liquidity pool doesn't break when Apple pays out. This is the second time in a week a US company has shipped a product that Americans can't touch, following Coinbase's addition of perpetual futures to its Base App through Hyperliquid on Wednesday, excluding US, UK, and Canadian users, while Robinhood launched its own layer-2 chain last month with tokenized stocks among the first offerings, available in over 120 countries but not at home.
Crypto valuations could at least double within two years, says Bitwise
Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at crypto asset manager Bitwise, said in a blog post on August 12 that crypto valuations could at least double. According to Hougan, crypto assets beyond bitcoin are becoming a revenue-driven market, with network activity increasingly reflected in the value of native tokens. He noted that investors have not yet priced in this shift, and some crypto assets are undervalued. He cited Hyperliquid, Uniswap, Aave, Pump.fun, and Lighter as protocols that buy back tokens with fees or remove them from circulation. For example, Hyperliquid used about 99 percent of its roughly 800 million dollars in revenue last year to buy back and burn its native token HYPE, and has burned a cumulative 1.3 billion dollars worth. Hougan expects decentralized finance applications and other layer-1 networks to adopt similar revenue-generation mechanisms over the next 12 to 24 months. However, he cautioned that token holders do not have legal claims to cash flows like shareholders, and tokenomics can change. If the link between revenue and price becomes established, crypto assets could be valued using metrics closer to equities, further expanding room for institutional participation.
Aave founder warns against proposed ETH staking reward cuts — could impact a market with 26 billion dollars in supplied assets
Aave founder Stani Kulechov has voiced opposition to a proposed gradual reduction in Ethereum staking rewards. The proposal would effectively reduce consensus-layer issuance rewards to zero when roughly 50 percent of the ETH supply is staked. Kulechov warned that making yields unpredictable would dampen participation from institutional investors and solo validators, weakening borrowing demand in DeFi lending markets such as Aave. Aave’s total supplied assets fell from around 45 billion dollars in mid-April to 22.3 billion dollars in early June, before recovering to about 26 billion dollars recently. ETH-denominated supply stands at roughly 10.9 billion dollars, accounting for over 40 percent of the total. Kulechov noted that with zero rewards, most ETH borrowing strategies would no longer be viable. Marc Zeller of the Aave ecosystem has also argued that major protocols should reject the proposal. Meanwhile, supporters of the proposal say curbing excessive staking rewards would improve ETH’s monetary properties and ease validator concentration.
Aave to shut down V3 markets on six blockchains and remove 50 idle tokens
Aave is considering a proposal to close V3 markets on six blockchains and remove 50 underutilized reserve assets, as part of a major restructuring covering 98.1 million dollars in deposited assets and 15.6 million dollars in liabilities. Risk service provider LlamaRisk has recommended removing 50 reserve assets and 21 matured Pendle tokens across 11 deployments, and proposes retiring all reserve assets on Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos, with balances measured as of July 28. This proposal is a preliminary step before a formal Aave Improvement Proposal and is not yet a final vote. The withdrawal from Aptos comes just 11 months after the V3 market launched there, following a 94 percent liquidity drop in six months and quarterly revenue below 1,000 dollars. Reserve assets on Scroll, zkSync, Metis, and Soneium were previously frozen, while Sonic and Aptos remain active and are recommended for freezing. A temperature check on Aave's multi-chain strategy concluded on December 5, 2025, with 923,400 votes in favor and less than 1 percent opposed to increasing reserve factors on underperforming instances, closing instances on zkSync, Metis, and Soneium, and setting a minimum annual revenue threshold of 2 million dollars for new deployments. Scroll was added to the affected protocols through an expedited process in April, as LlamaRisk submitted a direct AIP proposal to freeze all Scroll reserve assets and raise reserve factors, describing it as completing the Scroll deprecation process after a rapid decline in Aave's market liquidity and activity. Aave published an updated risk framework on June 9, covering asset risk, bridge risk, monitoring, and blockchain risk, including criteria for retiring reserve assets or deployments, and this month's announcement marks the practical adoption of those rules. Aave founder Stani Kulechov said this will reduce Aave's economic and technical risk exposure under the new risk framework, and is not a reversal of the multi-chain strategy but a strategic focus on selected protocols, confirming that Aave will continue ongoing risk assessments for all assets across all deployments.
Aave USDT Borrowings Surge by About 39 Billion Yen in One Week, Reaching 95.5% of Cap Even After Increase
At major DeFi lending platform Aave, borrowings of the stablecoin USDT jumped by roughly 239 million USDT, or about 39 billion yen, in one week, reaching approximately 400 billion yen. The USDT borrow balance in Aave V3 Core expanded from around 2.218 billion USDT on July 13 to about 2.457 billion USDT on July 20, hitting 95.5 percent of the borrow cap of 2.574 billion USDT that had just been raised on July 15. In response to this surge, risk management contributor LlamaRisk proposed on July 21 to further increase the borrow cap by 516 million USDT to 3.09 billion USDT. Behind the trend is the growth of trades that borrow USDT using Ethena's synthetic dollar USDe as collateral. The supply cap for USDe also reached 99.4 percent shortly after its increase on July 15, prompting another raise to 902 million USDe.
Kraken in talks to acquire 15% stake in DeFi lender Aave
Crypto exchange Kraken is in talks to acquire a 15% stake in decentralized finance protocol Aave at a $385 million U.S. valuation. The privately held exchange would invest 35,000 Ethereum in return for 250,000 AAVE tokens and a 15% equity stake, a deal worth $71 million U.S. This would be the first in a series of deals aimed at expanding Kraken ahead of an upcoming initial public offering. Aave is the largest decentralized lender, enabling users to lend and borrow crypto assets without intermediaries. Kraken has recently increased acquisitions, agreeing in April to buy crypto derivatives platform Bitnomial for $550 million U.S., as it builds a multi-asset platform ahead of a potential IPO in the second half of this year.