Aave Plans to Shut Down Six Blockchains After Revenue Drops Sharply

Aave wants to wind down markets on Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos after a sharp drop in deposits and revenue. The proposal fits into a broader shift toward fewer, but more profitable, deployments.

Key Takeaways

• Aave wants to shut down six blockchains: Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos.
• Together, the six networks generate less than $5,000 per quarter and hold about $98 million in deposits that are now under pressure.
• Current positions will remain open, but the markets will be frozen for new deposits, borrowing, and collateral use.

Aave is making a major change to its multi-chain setup and is proposing to shut down six blockchains where activity has fallen off sharply, according to the governance proposal. The networks in question are Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos. Together, they account for about $98 million (€85.4 million) in deposits that are under pressure. At the same time, the protocol is also looking to phase out 50 low-adoption asset markets and 21 expired Pendle principal tokens across eleven Aave deployments.

Why the math no longer works

At the center of the proposal is a simple economic problem. The six deployments together bring in less than $5,000 (€4,360) per quarter, and Metis, Soneium, and Aptos each generate less than $1,000 (€871). Aave says that is not enough to justify the cost of running price feeds, liquidation systems, and ongoing monitoring for every market.

Usage has also dropped fast. Soneium saw deposits fall 95%, Aptos lost 94% of available liquidity, and zkSync declined 88% to about $844,000 (€735,400). Scroll fell 86% to around $2 million (€1.7 million), Metis dropped 79%, and Sonic, the largest of the six, fell 74% to just under $8 million (€7 million).

For context, Aave’s Ethereum mainnet brings in more than $142 million (€124 million) a year, according to the proposal, while Base generates about $4.7 million (€4.1 million). The six networks now represent only a small part of Aave’s overall balance sheet, with roughly $13 million (€11.3 million) in deposits compared with about $14 billion (€12.2 billion) across 23 chains.

What happens to users

Open positions would not be closed immediately. Even so, the markets would be frozen for new deposits, borrowing, and collateral use. Aave also wants to cut the limits to one token, route 99% of borrower interest to the treasury, and add a 5% base rate so the remaining activity gradually winds down.

The proposal also fits into a broader shift in how Aave is thinking about expansion. In December, the Aave Chan Initiative had already suggested rolling back deployments on zkSync, Metis, and Soneium, arguing that they had not reached product-market fit and that future launches should require at least $2 million (€1.7 million) in annual revenue. Aave’s V4 upgrade, which introduces a Liquidity Hub model and shared liquidity, also points to a move away from separate pools on each chain.

Why this matters

For European crypto readers, the bigger takeaway is that DeFi protocols are not going to keep spreading across every new chain forever. Even a major protocol like Aave is now choosing to concentrate capital, liquidity, and operational effort on the networks that actually bring in users. That could shape how other DeFi projects approach multi-chain growth and risk management.

Aave’s push toward more profitable markets also reflects a wider DeFi concern about capital sitting idle for too long. In a recent analysis of idle liquidity, underused liquidity on major DEXs was estimated to be costing hundreds of millions in missed fees.