Aave Surges 80% in 30 Days as DeFi Recovery Boosts TVL

AAVE, the native token of the leading decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol, has experienced significant price growth recently. As of May 21, 2025, AAVE was trading between $255 and $260, marking an 11% increase over the past week and an 80% surge over the last 30 days. This rally is part of a broader DeFi recovery, with Ethereum also seeing substantial gains in the same period.

Despite a minor 3-5% dip in the last 24 hours as investors locked in profits, AAVE's performance has outpaced many other altcoins, indicating a growing demand for DeFi lending services. The strong price movement is accompanied by elevated trading activity, with 24-hour trading volumes hovering around $475 million, significantly higher than historical averages. Short liquidations have also increased, suggesting that bearish positions are being forced out during the rally, which could indicate continued upward pressure.

Aave’s ecosystem is witnessing explosive growth in locked assets. The Total Value Locked (TVL) in Aave recently topped $24-25 billion, making it the largest single DeFi protocol by TVL. This represents a roughly 3.6 times increase since January 2024, rising from about $6.6 billion to $23.8 billion. During this period, the total DeFi TVL has roughly doubled from $56 billion to $115 billion, boosting Aave’s market share of DeFi TVL from 11% to 20%. This growth highlights strong adoption of Aave’s lending markets across Ethereum and Layer-2 chains, with the protocol recording over $10 billion of active loans, demonstrating its real-world utility and growing usage.

A key catalyst for recent growth was Aave’s May 19 deployment of its V3 protocol on Aptos, marking its first launch on a non-EVM blockchain. This integration has already boosted activity, with derivatives data showing a 42% jump in Aave open interest immediately after the Aptos announcement. Trading volume likewise surged, up 90% to $1.84 billion during the rally. These on-chain flows suggest that many traders and users are rotating into Aave following the Aptos integration, indicating that the protocol’s expansion beyond Ethereum has widened its reach and fueled user interest.

From a technical perspective, AAVE remains in a strong uptrend. The price is trading well above its main moving averages, with the 200-day EMA around $200 and the 10-day EMA/SMA near $237. With prices between $255-260, AAVE is trading above both short and long-term averages, a classic bullish signal. Momentum indicators also support the uptrend, with the Relative Strength Index (RSI) approximately 71.2, placing it in overbought territory. The MACD has turned positive, further confirming bullish momentum. However, some caution may be warranted due to the high RSI reading, which suggests short-term overbought conditions. The 20-day SMA at $214 serves as near-term support, with resistance flagged near $270 as the next hurdle. A decisive break above $270-280 would be needed to maintain bullish momentum.

Aave is also expanding its asset menu, with discussions underway to include new collateral types such as Uniswap V4 LP tokens and the BNB-based Soneium token. Integrating these assets would allow users to borrow against liquidity positions from Uniswap v4 pools and the Binance ecosystem, enhancing the protocol’s utility. This planned collateral expansion highlights Aave’s ongoing development and could attract more liquidity and borrowers once implemented. As of the latest update, AAVE is trading at $251, down 5% over the past 24 hours following a brief price correction.