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Aave

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[AI-DRAFTED · AWAITING VERIFICATION]

Auto-generated score, not yet verified against the scoring model. Under review — treat as indicative, not a verdict.

anchored·46esnW…oTHc

Summary

Aave is a decentralized, non-custodial liquidity protocol built on Ethereum and multiple other blockchains, enabling users to supply assets to earn interest or borrow against overcollateralized positions. Founded in 2017 as ETHLend by Finnish lawyer Stani Kulechov, it rebranded to Aave in 2020 and grew into the largest DeFi lending platform by total value locked, holding roughly 60% market share in DeFi lending. A multi-year SEC investigation into the AAVE token closed without enforcement in December 2025. In April 2026 Aave was a downstream victim of the $292 million Kelp DAO rsETH bridge exploit (attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group): the attacker used now-unbacked rsETH as collateral to borrow roughly $190 million, leaving Aave with bad debt and triggering an $8.45 billion, 48-hour deposit run that cut TVL from ~$45.8B to ~$28.6B. Aave's own smart contracts were not exploited — the loss stemmed from accepting compromised external collateral. The protocol led the industry-wide 'DeFi United' restitution coalition (raising over $300 million in ETH), pursued recovery of roughly $71 million in frozen attacker funds in U.S. court, and restored rsETH operations by late May 2026. Residual concerns are the bad-debt overhang from the April incident and ongoing governance tensions between token holders and Aave Labs, but the protocol remains a fundamentally legitimate blue-chip lending platform.

Connected Entities

76 entities · 60 linked investigations
Organizations
□Kelp18□Harmony Bridge□KelpDAO / LayerZero Bridge Exploit (April 2026) — DPRK Lazarus□Aave□Fantom (Sonic Labs)□Chainlink□Ethereum□Arbitrum□Polygon□Optimism□Beanstalk Farms□Mango Markets□Avraham Eisenberg□TraderTraitor / UNC48990□GHO53□North Korea Lazarus Group — H1 2026 Systematic Crypto Theft Campaign
Protocols
⌂Uniswap⌂LayerZero — DVN Single-Verifier Configuration Risk⌂Euler Finance⌂Jupiter: Gas Wallet⌂Raydium Vault Authority #2⌂Raydium Launchpad Authority
Tokens
♦Aave
Wallets
◇Aave (AAVE)◇CsVdJ8…DaED◇DW4kp1…fRPo◇65pzmo…ksQy◇5yMMxh…QKd3◇GJvewf…T4YA◇6k7hLz…fhSb◇5AWyCx…JAk8◇5Jw5Lk…zciF◇8GX5dh…AyPm◇93zhdb…CJCy◇5PQRrd…xmAF+ 41 more
Relationships
  • Aave (AAVE)→associated with→Aave(80%)
  • 5Jw5Lk…zciF→controls→Aave(90%)
  • 8GX5dh…AyPm→associated with→Aave(60%)
  • 5PQRrd…xmAF→controls→Aave(41%)
  • CsVdJ8…DaED→controls→Aave(41%)
  • DW4kp1…fRPo→controls→Aave(42%)
  • 5yMMxh…QKd3→controls→Aave(41%)
  • 5AWyCx…JAk8→controls→Aave(49%)
  • GJvewf…T4YA→controls→Aave(55%)
  • 6k7hLz…fhSb→controls→Aave(48%)
  • + 118 more
Also appears in
Atomic Wallet Hack·0Kelp·18DPRK Lazarus April 2026 $635M Blitz — Drift + Kelp Combined Campaign·0Coldcard Firmware Exploit (2026)·10LayerZero Protocol·55Q2 2026 DeFi Record Hack Wave·0Famous Chollima ClickFake Interview Campaign (PylangGhost / GolangGhost)·0Edel Finance·28WOO X·38Harmony Horizon Bridge·4+ 50 more

Connected Through

22 shared actors · 586 investigations

Distinct actors this investigation shares with others — holders, traders, and named parties. Shared infrastructure (exchanges, pools) is excluded.

Live On-Chain Activity

1 address watched · via Helius
No on-chain activity recorded yet for the addresses linked to this entity. When tracked wallets move funds on Solana, the events will appear here.
Have evidence about Aave?

Timeline(18 events)

25 November 2017

ETHLend conducts ICO, raising $16.2 million by selling one billion LEND tokens at $0.0162 each.

Wikipedia / CoinMarketCap

8 January 2020

Aave V1 launches on Ethereum, rebranding from ETHLend. Flash loans introduced as a novel DeFi primitive.

Aave Wikipedia / Messari

16 March 2022

Aave V3 launches on Polygon, Avalanche, Fantom, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Harmony.

Aave Wikipedia

April 2022

Beanstalk Farms exploited for $182 million using a flash loan sourced partly from Aave; Aave itself not directly harmed.

Koinly / Bank Underground

November 2022

Avraham Eisenberg accumulates 92 million CRV short position on Aave; community short squeeze liquidates him, leaving Aave with approximately $1.6 million in CRV bad debt.

CoinDesk / Blockworks

26 January 2023

Aave purchases 2.7 million CRV tokens to offset residual bad debt from the Eisenberg incident.

CoinDesk

March 2023

Euler Finance exploited for $197 million using a flash loan partially sourced from Aave; Aave itself not directly harmed.

Chainalysis

14 July 2023

Aave DAO passes AIP-268 to launch GHO stablecoin. GHO begins trading below its $1.00 peg.

DL News / Aave Wikipedia

4 November 2023

Critical vulnerability reported via Aave bug bounty affecting V2 Ethereum and V3 on Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche. Markets paused as precaution.

Aave Governance / CryptoSlate

13 November 2023

Aave V2 markets reopen after critical vulnerability remediated.

CryptoSlate

16 December 2025

SEC closes its approximately four-year investigation into Aave with no enforcement action.

Unchained / BeInCrypto / Yahoo Finance

23 December 2025

Aave Labs submits brand asset transfer proposal to DAO vote during Christmas holiday period without consulting original proposer; 55.29% of token holders vote against.

CoinDesk / CoinTelegraph

30 March 2026

Aave V4 launches on Ethereum with hub-and-spoke architecture after audits found zero critical vulnerabilities.

Aave Governance / Blockworks

13 April 2026

DAO approves 'Aave Will Win' framework: 100% of revenue from Aave-branded products directed to DAO treasury; $25 million grant approved for Aave Labs.

CoinDesk

18 April 2026

Kelp DAO rsETH exploit occurs; attacker attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group mints unbacked rsETH and borrows approximately $190 million from Aave, leaving Aave with bad debt and triggering an $8.45 billion deposit run. Aave's own contracts were not exploited.

CoinDesk / Halborn / Aave Governance

23 April 2026

Aave leads the industry 'DeFi United' coalition, raising over $300 million in ETH to contain fallout from the KelpDAO exploit across the DeFi sector.

CoinDesk / Yahoo Finance

5 May 2026

Aave LLC files motion in New York federal court to lift restraining notice blocking access to approximately $71 million in recovered ETH frozen on behalf of North Korea terror victims.

CoinDesk

26 May 2026

Aave and Kelp DAO restore rsETH operations as recovery and bad-debt remediation from the April exploit progress.

The Block / Crypto Times
Provenance & Audit Trail
Anchored on SolanaVerify on-chain26 Wayback Archives

Decision Log

This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (8 events). 26 of 26 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.

Fact-checked 2026-09-0926 claims checked6 corrections pending0 applied⛓ anchoredSee findings →
full audit log →version history →

model: claude-code-investigator

generated: 5/7/2026, 5:10:48 PM

last updated: 7/25/2026, 12:51:34 PM

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