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Leading decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Aave has reached a significant milestone, hitting $35 billion in total net deposits. This marks Aave’s new all-time high (ATH) in net deposits since 2021. Aave Hits $35 Billion In Net Deposits – What’s Ahead? In an announcement made yesterday, the leading DeFi lending protocol Aave revealed that it had reached a new ATH in net deposits since 2021. With $35 billion in net deposits, Aave has solidified its position as the largest DeFi protocol at the time of writing. Related Reading: AAVE Price Soars 26% In A Single Week — Will Rising FOMO Lead To A Bust? To put this into perspective, Aave’s net deposits were $5.5 billion at the end of 2022, increasing to $10 billion by the close of 2023. The current figure of $35 billion at the end of 2024 reflects an astounding surge of over 535% in just two years. The year 2024 proved to be transformative for Aave, with the protocol experiencing heightened user adoption across multiple blockchains. Throughout the year, Aave added support for five new markets, including BNB Chain, Scroll, ZKsync Era, and Ether.fi. According to the announcement, Aave is poised to expand further by potentially adding support for six additional blockchains. These include Mantle, Sonic, Linea, BOB, Spider Chain, and Aptos, pending approval by the Aave decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). For the uninitiated, a DAO is a blockchain-based entity governed by smart contracts and decentralized voting, where decisions are made collectively by token holders without any central authority. DAOs enable transparent, democratic management of protocols in a trustless environment. In addition to expanding to new blockchain markets, Aave launched its latest protocol upgrade, Aave V4. This upgrade introduces significant improvements, such as enhanced modularity, reduced governance overhead, optimized capital efficiency, and innovative features like the Hub and Spoke liquidity architecture. Moreover, Aave’s decentralized, overcollateralized stablecoin GHO is set to witness increased adoption. Plans are in motion to expand its cross-chain support across various smart contract platforms, including Coinbase’s Base and Avalanche (AVAX), by early 2025. DeFi To Make A Comeback In 2025? Following Donald Trump’s victory in the November 2024 U.S. presidential election, DeFi tokens have experienced a significant surge, driven by optimism surrounding favorable cryptocurrency regulations under the new administration. Related Reading: Chainlink And AAVE Surge After Trump’s Crypto Project Invests In Both Additionally, DeFi protocols have become increasingly secure, fostering greater user trust and leading to higher deposit volumes and a larger total value locked (TVL). A recent report highlighted that DeFi exploits decreased by 40% in 2024 compared to 2023, signaling improved security across the ecosystem. In addition, Q1 2025 is expected to be bullish for Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, and home to the largest DeFi ecosystem. A positive price action for ETH is expected to benefit major DeFi tokens such as AAVE, Curve (CRV), Compound (COMP), and others. That said, the Solana (SOL) DeFi ecosystem is rapidly gaining traction and catching up with Ethereum in terms of adoption. This development could propel Solana-based DeFi tokens, such as Orca (ORCA) and Raydium (RAY), to reach new highs. At press time, ETH is trading at $3,461, up 4% in the past 24 hours. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from Tradingview.com