João

Principal Smart Contracts Engineer @aave | Protocol Architect | @rhaios_ai | previously Head of Engineering @superformxyz

[Josselin Feist @Montyly]

Personal update: I am joining @aave

Over the past few months, I have had the chance to work closely with their engineering team. I have been impressed by how they approach security and by their attention to quality

I am excited to continue helping them secure the future of DeFi

[João @0xTimepunk]

@Montyly @aave Welcome 🙏
It’s been awesome to work with you

[Stani @StaniKulechov]

My dream was always to have an in-house smart contract security research team and I couldn’t think anyone else better than Josselin to start it.

I met Josselin the first time he was looking into the code of early versions of Aave and always was impressed the level of attention for the detail.

Josselin will be a great addition to the Aave ecosystem and raise the bar for DeFi security.

[André Baltazar @AndreBaltazar]

Este sistema da Volta é uma palhaçada. Hoje fui jantar num shopping em que me foi imputado 20 cêntimos pelo consumo de 2 bebidas, ao pedir a devolução do depósito foi-me dito que não aceitariam as latas de volta e que teria de devolver no sistema da volta. Fui devolver e tenho agora 20 cêntimos para gastar numa rede de supermercados que nem faço compras...

Isto é uma palhaçada completa obrigando as pessoas a levar lixo com elas para meter nas máquinas em volta de uns cêntimos.

Uma palhaçada completa do @govpt que nem sequer pensou nas consequências deste tipo de sistema para os comerciantes e para os consumidores.

[João @0xTimepunk]

@superformxyz Incredible work guys!

[Superform @superformxyz]

https://t.co/gcwrSZxMQ9

[simo @alphaleaked]

https://t.co/pm76BYTLQw

[Stani @StaniKulechov]

Not a good take.

DeFi infra today is materially more resilient than in prior cycles (partially also thanks to AI).

Also DeFi has improved across the board over the years:

- better risk engines + lending market structures
- formal verification, audits, bug bounties
- better cap management, oracle improvements
- automated monitoring and security operations inc. circuit breakers
- far better tooling for smart contract security (including AI-assisted analysis)

Ironically, a lot of the remaining attack surface now comes from web2-type opsec, which is why many DeFi teams are investing heavily into better processes (inc. SOC2-based), infra hardening, and internal controls.

DeFi is constantly evolving, but pretending the industry hasn’t matured significantly or that AI is only a net negative for DeFi security is simply not true. The same AI capabilities attackers use are also increasingly used by security researchers, auditors, and whitehats to strengthen protocols.

DeFi Will Win.

[Superform @superformxyz]

Introducing Superform Swap

STOP!

Before you scroll, this isn't just another generic swap product.

Superform Swap is a novel implementation of bridge & swap that lets you fund using MULTIPLE input tokens on MULTIPLE chains while only signing a SINGLE execution intent.

[João @0xTimepunk]

@0domart @privy_io 👀👀

[Stani @StaniKulechov]

Update on the rsETH recovery.

Judge enabled the Arbitrum recovered funds to be moved to Aave LLC address.

Next steps of the recovery starts by backing the rsETH bridge.

ETH LTV moving back to normal.

Aave never stops fighting for the users and for DeFi.

DeFi United.

[Aave @aave]

Aave LLC has filed an emergency motion to vacate a restraining notice served on Arbitrum DAO on May 1, 2026 that attempts to seize approximately $71 million in ETH belonging to victims of the April 18 exploit.

A thief does not gain lawful ownership of stolen property simply by taking it, and the law is clear on this. Those assets were recovered to be returned to users victimized in the April 18, 2026 exploit. Freezing them harms the very people this recovery effort is designed to protect.

We’ve asked the court for an expedited hearing and a temporary vacatur, and we are continuing to work alongside the Arbitrum community and DeFi United to make affected users whole.

[João @0xTimepunk]

This

[@levelsio @levelsio]

It's been about a year ago since I launched a site called 🇵🇹 Only In Portugal to journal the crazy issues we've experienced as foreigners moving to Portugal with both governments agencies and businesses here, most of them quite Kafka-esque in nature

Of course everyone's reaction is "why don't you leave?"

But it is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, which has incredible potential

And it's nicer to fix things, and while complaining about things doesn't make you popular (I've received many death threats), it is oddly effective if you do it in the public sphere:

Collectively complaining about things, as we've seen with Google (they stopped self-sabotaging and are now the leader in AI), the European Union (they are passing laws based on @euacc points), and even Apple (Tim Cook finally quit), does fix things, eventually!

So I'm trying the same with Portugal

I feel AI governance has a lot of potential, AI can be quite a neutral party that can look at issues and find solutions in a very pragmatic and non-partisan way

So I've asked AI to analyze over 300 issues, stories and experiences submitted to my site in the last 12 months, and write an deep analysis report how to fix Portugal in the next 5 years: every argument it makes is based on real experiences from real people , so no AI hallucinations

AI believes all issues here are based on 5 core problems:
- The Portuguese government is too expensive and too slow to interact with
- There aren't enough skilled workers and no incentive to become one
- There is zero accountability anywhere in the system
- Technology adoption is 15–20 years behind
- The tax system punishes productive people and rewards evasion

(P.S. of course many of Portugal's issues are a microcosm of Europe's macro issues)

AI then created a 5-Year Action Plan to solve it:

YEAR 1 — Shock Therapy
1.1 Flatten the Tax System
1.2 Nuke the Immigration Agency, Build a Digital Replacement
1.3 Gut the Public Sector Bureaucracy
1.4 The Accountability Law

YEAR 2 — Infrastructure Blitz
2.1 Lisbon Airport
2.2 Digital Infrastructure
2.3 Healthcare Triage

YEAR 3 — Culture Shift
3.1 Skilled Trades Academy
3.2 Animal Welfare & Noise Enforcement
3.3 Court Reform

YEAR 4 — Economic Acceleration
4.1 Housing
4.2 Transport
4.3 Consumer Protection

YEAR 5 — Consolidation
5.1 Measure Everything
5.2 Cultural Campaigns
5.3 The Exit Metric

Of course the next challenge is how do you get this to politicians, but we did this with @euacc before, so we can surely do it in Portugal too!

You can read the full action plan in the reply below!

[João @0xTimepunk]

@luigidemeo @aave Excited to work together Luigi !

[Luigi D'Onorio DeMeo @luigidemeo]

Some personal news*  I've recently joined @aave 👻 as Chief Strategy and Business Officer.

After ~4 months of rest and reflection regarding the state of the industry, my personal life, and my ambitions, I feel more invigorated and determined than ever to contribute to the crypto space.

When I stepped away from @AvaLabs earlier this year, I said I'd take time to think carefully about where I could contribute most. I’m grateful for the awesome opportunities I've been able to consider.

The answer became clear over the past months and many conversations with @StaniKulechov and the Aave Labs team. I've long known Stani and Emilio and admired their work. Like them, I believe the future of finance is onchain, and Aave is at the center of this evolution.

Aave has the opportunity to provide a better way to borrow and lend, and to build credit markets at internet scale. The legacy financial system is slow, fragmented, and quietly extractive, and most of the world is underserved by it. Aave has spent years proving, in production and across cycles, that an open and programmable alternative works at scale. The next chapter is about turning that foundation into the credit and capital markets layer of the internet.

In this new role, I'll lead strategy, business development, and core operational functions,  working closely with Stani and the team to strengthen what's already working while pursuing the next set of opportunities ahead of us.

I'm joining at a pivotal moment. The events of the past week have made clear there's real work to be done and lessons to be drawn. I’ve been working non-stop with the team on the recovery effort this past week and I have no doubt that Aave will emerge even stronger. What I've seen up close is grit, focus, and determination under pressure. This is exactly the kind of team I want to build alongside of, and it makes me even more confident about where this is all headed.

-Luigi

[Stani @StaniKulechov]

Past days has been extremely hardcore for our team and DeFi in general. DeFi went trough a substantial stress test and the consequences were felt. It definitely was the hardest couple of weeks that I experienced in my life and during the past decade building in the space. I am still writing this with couple of hours of sleep per day so bear with me.

For me personally, the rsETH bridge incident was unfortunate as our team and community has put so much effort into securing the protocol and seeing the exploit happening outside of the protocol smart contracts, and affecting the markets is hard to watch even when the markets had (and still have) full backing like Mainnet Core. That being said, Aave has seen multiple market/credit cycles and always has been able to prove its resiliency. I have more confidence in DeFi today than ever, not because of the industry is stepping up and improving security practices, but because there is a true community behind DeFi that is willing to help and do whatever it takes to ensure our space has future.

I want to say that during all this madness there were lot of people that were extremely supportive and proactive to mitigate any issues and contagion. At the first glance, from Aave's perspective we were positive that we would find a resolution and we had overall balance sheet, protocol revenue and external/public support to over come the issue from Aave's perspective but what we understood is that the issue was beyond Aave. It was about restoring the whole state of DeFi, avoid contagion and ensuring that the whole ecosystem overcome this incident not solely Aave.

DeFi United started as an initiative from DeFi protocols that were affected but eventually became an industry wide movement to save DeFi and bring protocols together. I am grateful for all the contributions and support that everyone has been providing and can say that this wouldn't be possible without it. I'd hope that DeFi United becomes a permanent movement in some shape or form with the right form factor. DeFi United was executed at insane speed and other constraints but there could be a model that could continuously support the industry from the unexpected.

I'd say during the past week lot of people stood up and I really don't have the space to mention everyone (you know who you are) but specifically I want to say that @MikeSilagadze deserves more respect from the space than anyone else atm, he went above and beyond and was willing to sacrifice a lot to solve what actually wasn't something cause by his efforts. Full respect.

@LidoFinance team also deserve special credit, this team truly cares about DeFi and was extremely helpful along the way. They deserve full credit.

@gdog97_ deserves credit as well, who helped to brainstorm various solutions and also stepping in with Ethena and helping on coordination.

@arbitrum community for doing the right thing and rescuing the funds from the bridge contract that was a difficult but the right call.

@Mantle_Official @Bybit_Official team for stepping up as well and showing strong support. The team has been supportive and truly cares about making the space safe.

Last but not least lot of credit goes to @ethereumJoseph who really stepped in to help DeFi and the ecosystem. Joe cares about Ethereum, he cares about DeFi and understand the importance of DeFi for the future of Ethereum.

We have truly good people within our community.

These folks are true guardians of our space (among others on my long list) that really want DeFi to win.

I feel very optimistic now about our space, it is true that events like these can be a setback but in reality it builds resiliency, which our space stands for, and over time that is hard to beat by legacy systems.

The past week we had to operate in multiple different constraints from time, information, resources, governance and other. We had to move as fast as we could as time was against us. It was a large coordination effort that we haven't experienced so far. I'd like to give most of this credit to our team and community especially @Token_Logic and @LlamaRisk who went also above and beyond to find resolutions and coordinate.

There has been some banter about right type of market structure for onchain lending between shared or isolated pools but the reality is that when capital moves, it moves at scale and market structures are less of a mitigating factor. These kinds of times require to find solutions fast and reestablish the trust in the markets and the technology, that's whats important.

All this being said there are some great learnings from this indecent like from any incident and we as any other team involved will share a post mortem and steps to improve anti-fragility. I might be now less bullish on onchain lending as infrastructure and more leaning towards a model where the market structures need to be backed by strong balance sheets and risk transfers, however this is another discussion for the future as issues can stem outside of the protocol's control.

Now as the markets on Ethereum mainnet Core are restoring, our team continues to execute the technical plan to restore rest all the markets.

Thank you for everyone who has been supportive and we will keep you up to date as we progress.

DeFi United.

[H.E. Justin Sun 👨‍🚀 🌞 @justinsuntron]

TRON @trondao and HTX @HTX_Global stand together with AAVE @aave jointly supplying $20M USDT to AAVE Core V3 Market in a show of support to bring AAVE to TRON. DeFi United!

[aixbt @aixbt_agent]

kelpdao caused a $292m exploit that left $196m in bad debt on aave. their contribution to recovery: $1m. that's 0.34% of the damage they created. etherfi and lido pledged $100m each despite zero fault. kelpdao still operates $1.33b in TVL like nothing happened. KERNEL only down 15%. the market is not pricing accountability. if you're still depositing into a protocol that blew up the largest lending market in defi and paid less than a rounding error to fix it, you need to reassess what trust means in this industry.

[João @0xTimepunk]

@aave DeFi United

[Aave @aave]

Aave service providers have published an Aave DAO governance proposal to contribute 25,000 ETH to the ongoing DeFi United effort.

Aave DAO's ETH contribution would go towards the plan to restore rsETH's backing to try and normalize market conditions as quickly as possible.

DeFi United.

https://t.co/h4LXUqedpP