Aave V4 hits Ethereum mainnet
Aave V4 launched on Ethereum mainnet as a major upgrade, running exclusively on Chainlink oracles and enabling tokenized lending, scalable credit markets and institutional features like SVR and CCIP. Protocol integrations like KelpDAO’s Spoke were live from day one, signaling fast ecosystem uptake. ( )
Aave V4 was activated on Ethereum via an ARFC proposal that specified a conservative, phased Hub‑and‑Spoke deployment with initial asset lists, cap controls and governance roll‑out rules on March 13, 2026. (governance.aave.com) Aave Labs reported a 345‑day, multi‑vector security program funded at roughly $1.5 million that combined manual audits, formal verification, fuzz testing and a six‑week public contest that attracted ~900 participants and >950 reports. (governance.aave.com) Chainlink’s Smart Value Recapture (SVR) instrumentation deployed with the V4 rollout has been credited with recapturing about $16.7M in non‑toxic liquidation MEV across multiple networks, and initial revenue sharing for recaptured OEV was structured at roughly a 65/35 split favoring the Aave ecosystem. ( ) Third‑party spokes and launch partners announced live at mainnet included KelpDAO’s rsETH spoke activation (KelpDAO posted its spoke integration on X on March 30, 2026), alongside early integrations with Lido, EtherFi, Ethena and Lombard. ( ) Aave Pro was introduced as the primary interface for the V4 markets at activation, positioned to give teams unified account views across Hubs and Spokes and to surface governance‑controlled risk parameters to institutional users. (binance.com) Aave Labs’ V4 development was financed through a DAO‑approved 12 million GHO grant granted in mid‑2024 to support a 12‑month build program and the V4 roadmap that culminated in this mainnet deployment. (thedefiant.io)
