Nick Rea

Storytelling at @aave

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

Aave’s new Stable Vaults infrastructure is launched and open for business.

Now any fintech in the world can offer fixed-rate, onchain yield to their users.

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

Aave V4 crossed a quarter billion in deposits. Just getting started.

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

With the UK cash ISA rules changing in 2027. Investors are seeking alternative yield in money market funds, tokenised debt and DeFi like @aave .

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

Tell me I should be getting into DeFi without telling me to get into DeFi

[Stani @StaniKulechov]

Aave's protocol revenue over the past few years:

2020: $177.12K
2021: $252.45M
2022: $137.41M
2023: $105.26M
2024: $456.47M
2025: $907.70M
2026 YTD: $333.14M

All onchain.

[Aave @aave]

Savings @GHO has been upgraded to a new vault with an Aave Savings Rate of 4.25% APR.

Rewards on legacy savings GHO (i.e. stkGHO) will end in seven weeks, so users must manually migrate to continue earning.

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

@binji_x @StaniKulechov UHT DeFi

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

Put your hand up if you were one of these 116k + wallets who contributed.

🙋‍♂️

I wanna know who you are!

https://t.co/lFxL3Vpn25 🌍🌐

[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.

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

🫶

[Aave @aave]

Aave service providers and ecosystem partners have established a recovery fund that factors in pending DAO votes, including the Arbitrum governance vote, indicative agreements, and successful execution to restore rsETH’s full backing.

We are DeFi United, and resolving this for affected users and the broader DeFi ecosystem is our top priority.

We have aligned with @KelpDAO and @LayerZero_Core on the technical steps required to execute our plan. That work is now moving forward.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to DeFi United and to the thousands of community members who stood with us throughout. Watching the DeFi community come together has been genuinely inspiring.

The final recovery plan, steps for users, and further updates will follow shortly.

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

@calilyliu Very graceful

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

Actually incredible!

No banks
No government bail outs
Just pure coordination

https://t.co/lFxL3Vpn25

[RYAN SΞAN ADAMS @RyanSAdams]

If DeFi restores a $200m shortfall through voluntary coordination it'll be an absolutely historic vote of confidence.

No tax payer funded bailout.

Just grit.

Builders who believe are an unstoppable force.

Bullish DeFi.

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

This is a collaborative effort which proves how powerful this community can be when it comes together as one.

It’s setting a fine example and I also believe that spirit will be continued once this moment has passed.

[binji @binji_x]

The only failure of the DeFi United initiative would be if it stops after the bailout.

This is a coordination feat that can set the tone for many more efforts dedicated to ecosystem resilience.

Hoping to see DeFi United both today and every day after.

Massive kudos.

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

This is exactly the purpose of community.

DeFi United !

[lito @litocoen]

i don't understand why people call this a bailout

a bailout is when government steps in and prints money to save banks or companies at a cost to the rest of society (devaluing everyone else's money)

this can create a moral hazard because if someone is protected from the consequences of their actions, they’re more likely to take bigger risks

this is not what's happening here

private companies are coming together and using their hard earned money to make users whole

this is the opposite of a moral hazard as they will 100% become *more* risk averse in the aftermath to avoid these costs in the future

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

You group of legends @sammdec @lochieaxon @mark_is_here @alexvanderzon

[Sam Mason de Caires @sammdec]

While the team and partners finalize other commitments, me, @mark_is_here, @lochieaxon, @alexvanderzon and others spun up a dashboard to track contributions.

Someone also donated defiunited.eth for those wanting to contribute.

Really inspiring to see the community come together on DeFi United.

https://t.co/4cN7h6uKji

[0xngmi @0xngmi]

Looks like this will be the final tally, with just 3% left to cover the entire hole from the rsETH hack

[Stani @StaniKulechov]

Very close.

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

I believe in DeFi because I believe everyone should have access to stable currencies and the ability to save and earn interest on their money. I know @StaniKulechov believes this too and that’s why I am behind him.

[Stani @StaniKulechov]

Aave is my life's work and we're working nonstop to find the best possible outcome for users.

I’m personally contributing 5000 ETH to DeFi United as we continue working together with partners on formalizing more commitments. I’m working to see this resolved and market conditions normalized as soon as possible.

DeFi United.

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

Barely a seat left in the house at @Aave DeFi day in EthCC

[Nick Rea @SmartMoneyNick]

@defisebs 😁😆