Aave generates $2.1M daily revenue during market downturn

The DeFi lending giant liquidated $234 million worth of crypto collateral on Tuesday

article-image

Aave modified by Blockworks

share

Aave generated $2.1 million in daily revenue amid a flood of cascading loan liquidations on Tuesday, based on TokenLogic data. 

The jump in daily revenue stems from liquidation fees amid the recent market selloff. Aave’s v3 deployment on Ethereum alone raked in $1.25 million in liquidation fees on Aug 6.

Liquidations on Aave v3 totaled $234 million, including $137 million WETH, $62 million wstETH and $21 million WBTC, according to Block Analitica.

The largest liquidated wallet (0x645…c4bfa) saw $73 million liquidated, making up 31% of total v3 liquidated collateral.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov tweeted: “Aave Protocol withstood market stress across 14 active markets on various L1s and L2s, securing $21B worth of value. Aave Treasury was rewarded with $6M in revenue overnight from decentralized liquidations for keeping the markets safe.”

Read more: Aave DAO’s latest move against MakerDAO spurs fears of ‘walled gardens’ in DeFi

Kulechov’s tweet of $6 million in daily revenue was projected revenues based on liquidation fees collected during the early hours of Monday morning.

“On Aug. 5, the Aave DAO was on track to generate over $6 million in daily revenue, driven by $1.51 million in Liquidation Fee revenue recorded within a seven-hour period,” TokenLogic founder Matthew Graham told Blockworks.

Aave did not return a request for comment by the time of publication.

Like all lending platforms, Aave generates revenue from interest fees charged on loans and liquidation fees. 

“When liquidations occur on Aave, liquidators have an incentive to earn a Liquidation Bonus, which varies between 5-10% of the collateral value. A portion of this Liquidation Penalty, called the Liquidation Factor, is directed to a DAO-owned collector contract,” said Blockworks Research analyst Luke Leasure. 

Read more: Empire Newsletter: The suspects behind this weekend’s crash

“As such, liquidations on the protocol are revenue-generating events. While the DAO will no longer earn interest revenues from these closed out debt positions, efficient liquidations are capable of generating substantial revenue for the protocol.”

On Saturday, just before crypto markets fell, Aave DAO passed its first temperature check on a landmark governance proposal that would begin returning protocol revenue to AAVE token holders.

Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave DAO delegate, Aave Chan Initiative, said the governance proposal can be put in place by the end of 2024.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Hilton Park Lane

Tues - Wed, November 10 - 11, 2026

DAS London is a two-day summit at the Hilton Park Lane in London featuring conversations between the builders, allocators, and policy makers who are shaping the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the UK, Europe, and North America.

Marina Bay Sands Singapore

Wednesday, October 07, 2026

DAS Asia is a a single-day summit at Marina Bay Sands Singapore featuring conversations between the builders, investors, and global leaders are shaping the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in Asia & North America.

recent research

Hyperliquid Purple (4).jpg

Research

HIP-3 has successfully scaled market creation on Hyperliquid, but it has not yet created a sustainable competitive deployer layer. Growth mode, USDH depreciation, high auction costs, and the 500K HYPE stake have made the model increasingly difficult for non-TradeXYZ deployers, leaving market creation concentrated around one clear outlier. We look at why deployer participation has slowed, what that means for HIP-3’s long-term design, and how tiered exchanges or temporary auction-fee relief could make smaller and more niche markets economically viable.

Newsletter

The Breakdown

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Blockworks Research

Unlock crypto's most powerful research platform.

Our research packs a punch and gives you actionable takeaways for each topic.

SubscribeGet in touch

Blockworks Inc.

133 W 19th St., New York, NY 10011

Blockworks Network

NewsPodcastsNewslettersEventsRoundtablesAnalytics