CoinDesk
Aave is preparing to shut down deployments on Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium and Aptos, freezing markets on each chain and pricing borrowers out so remaining users unwind positions voluntarily. The six chains together hold about $13 million in deposits, less than 1% of Aave's roughly $14 billion across 23 deployments, and each generates under $5,000 a quarter in revenue. Metis, Soneium and Aptos earn less than $1,000 each, against the cost of maintaining price feeds, liquidation systems and per-market monitoring. The cleanup also retires "low-adoption" asset markets and 21 expired Pendle principal tokens across 11 Aave deployments, with $98 million in deposits affected in total. Deposits on Soneium have fallen 95%, available liquidity on Aptos dropped 94%, zkSync declined 88% to about $844,000, Scroll fell 86% to roughly $2 million, Metis dropped 79%, and Sonic, the largest of the group, fell 74% to just under $8 million over the past six months.
Why it matters
The retreat is the clearest sign yet that Aave's multi-chain expansion bet stopped paying off. Each deployment still demands the same operational surface, price feeds, liquidation bots, governance attention, regardless of how thin the float gets. The Aave Chan Initiative already proposed in December rolling back zkSync, Metis and Soneium as chains that "lacked product market fit," and pushed a rule requiring any future deployment to commit to at least $2 million in annual revenue. The new proposal extends that logic to Sonic, Scroll and Aptos and tightens the financial bar before Aave ships to any new chain.
Market impact
The timing rides a falling top line. Aave's gross revenue dropped from $198 million in Q1 to $156 million in Q2, a decline of a fifth, and third-quarter figures are running well below that pace, with liquidation fees down from $27 million in Q2 to under $200,000 so far. Of the $888 million in borrower interest Aave collected over the past year, roughly $117 million stayed with the protocol, about 13 cents on the dollar, and that split steepens on the smaller chains.
Frequently asked questions
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Which Aave chains is the proposal targeting for shutdown?
The proposal would shut down Aave deployments on Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium and Aptos, six chains that together hold about $13 million in deposits, under 1% of Aave's ~$14 billion across 23 deployments.
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How much revenue do those six chains actually generate?
Each of the six generates under $5,000 per quarter in revenue, and Metis, Soneium and Aptos bring in less than $1,000 each, well below the cost of maintaining price feeds, liquidation systems and per-market monitoring.
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What happens to existing user positions on the affected chains?
Positions will not be forcibly closed. Markets will be frozen to new deposits, borrowing and collateral use, with supply and borrowing limits cut to a single token, 99% of borrower interest routed to Aave's treasury, and a 5% base borrowing rate introduced to push remaining users out voluntarily.
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Why is Aave doing this now, and what is the broader context?
Aave's gross revenue dropped from $198M in Q1 to $156M in Q2, a decline of a fifth, and Q3 is running well below that pace. The Aave Chan Initiative had already proposed in December rolling back zkSync, Metis and Soneium and pushing a rule requiring any future deployment to commit to at least $2M in annual revenue.
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How much of Aave's overall deposits and revenue is affected?
The six chains together hold about $13M of Aave's ~$14B in deposits across 23 chains, and the wider cleanup including retired Pendle principal tokens and "low-adoption" asset markets touches about $98M in deposits. Aave keeps roughly 13 cents of every dollar of borrower interest.
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