Aave Proposal Would Shut Deployments on Six Low-Revenue Chains

A new governance proposal on Aave seeks to end operations on six blockchain networks — Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium and Aptos — citing negligible revenue generation. The proposal also calls for retiring 50 asset markets across other deployments.

According to the proposal, deposits on some of these chains have plummeted by more than 90% from their peaks, making ongoing maintenance economically unsustainable. The affected networks collectively contributed only a tiny fraction of Aave’s total protocol fees.

Economic Rationale

The proposal argues that the cost of maintaining liquidity pools, oracles, and security infrastructure on these chains outweighs the fees collected. By shutting down these deployments, Aave can reallocate resources to higher-activity networks like Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Polygon.

• Sonic: deposits down ~95% over six months
• Scroll: minimal borrowing activity
• zkSync: <$1M in daily volume
• Metis: nearly zero interest earned
• Soneium: low user engagement
• Aptos: declining total value locked

The governance vote is expected to conclude within two weeks. If approved, Aave will initiate a phased withdrawal of liquidity and retire affected markets, though users will retain the ability to withdraw funds during a grace period.

Aave remains one of the largest lending protocols in decentralized finance, with over $10 billion in total value locked across its core deployments.