AAVE flips Lido across ALL metrics – But is this just round one?

Key Takeaways

• Aave’s $775 billion borrow volume and rising TVL dominance over Lido highlight its growing role in DeFi lending, with bullish price momentum signaling further upside—unless Lido reclaims key support to reverse its downtrend.

Aave [AAVE] and Lido [LDO] have been key frontiers in the DeFi sector, but one seems to have outdone the other across all metrics.

Both have seen notable price changes over the last 24 hours, but their on-chain activity is one to set eyes on.

“Next stop $1T,” says Aave’s founder

Aave has officially crossed $775 billion in cumulative borrow volume, marking one of the largest usage milestones in DeFi history.

The protocol’s borrowing curve, as shown in the latest chart, has climbed consistently since early 2021.

In fact, founder Stani Kulechov believes that the protocol is on track to breach $1 trillion next. That vision may not be far-fetched—the protocol’s adoption shows that decentralized credit has moved from experimental to essential.

And with this momentum, Aave could soon become the first DeFi protocol to hit the trillion-dollar lending threshold.

AAVE outperforms LDO

The data from Token Terminal confirmed this significant turnaround of DeFi.

Aave overtook Lido Finance in Total Value Locked (TVL). At one point, Lido commanded 37% of DeFi TVL, while Aave sat at 24%.

However, as of July 2025, AAVE had 39% of DeFi TVL and Lido dropped to 21%.

The AAVE platform alone accounted for 22% of all DeFi TVL and nearly half, about 46% of the TVL inside the lending area.

That ascent made it clear: Lido’s influence had waned, while Aave’s steady growth since March positioned it as DeFi’s new utility backbone.

Source: Token Terminal

Apart from this leading position in the lending and staking sector, can it continue outgrowing LDO in price?

AAVE vs. LDO charts compared

At the time of writing, the price structure comparison of 4-hour charts of the two showed that AAVE was in a constant uptrend.

This showed a bullish structure with higher highs and a clean trendline support, which indicated the strength of the price.

In the meantime, LDO was above its trendline but lost it, having a tough time rebounding. The MACD on AAVE was bullish, but for LDO was flat, showing indecision.

Source: TradingView

Of course, price isn’t just about structure; it’s also about sentiment.

AAVE gained 253% over the past 12 months, while LDO declined by 55%.

The former could increase its advantage, in case of trendline support, but in case of a breakdown, the correction could start. In the case of LDO, sentiment may move with the re-take of its trendline.

Therefore, as of press time, AAVE was in the lead, but it could soon decrease depending on the LDO replenishing structure or macro conditions changing.