The Aave community has tabled a new tentative proposal that envisions a comprehensive overhaul of its approach to multi-chain growth.
The proposal proposes revenue-boosting adjustments to underperforming networks, a complete shutdown of Aave V3 on some chains, and a minimum annual revenue floor requirement of $2 million for all future deployments.
Aave has numerous V3 instances running on different blockchains, each of which adds additional overhead in terms of both operational costs and security. The community notes that the revenue generated by some of these instances does not offset these costs, and that the multi-chain expansion strategy of previous years has not delivered the expected results. Therefore, the focus should shift to networks that offer higher revenue potential.
According to the proposal, the reserve factor will be increased for instances with annual revenue below $3 million. This includes Polygon, Gnosis, BNB Chain, Optimism, Scroll, Sonic, and Celo. If there is no significant revenue increase within 12 months following these adjustments, the abandonment process may be initiated on the relevant networks.
The three lowest-revenue networks are planning to shut down Aave V3 entirely. zkSync, Metis, and Soneium have annual revenues of only $3,000–$50,000, and the community points out that these chains lack sufficient product-market fit. Furthermore, the additional engineering costs required to list new assets on some networks, combined with low revenue, create an unsustainable burden.
The proposal also lays out a clear criterion for all future new deployments: For Aave to be deployed on a new chain, the chain would need to commit to at least $2 million in guaranteed annual revenue. The community argues that while the value Aave provides to a new ecosystem is significant, the operational costs and risks are also not negligible.
*This is not investment advice.