Woofun AI reports that Aave governance is considering the termination of V3 lending markets across six distinct blockchains, alongside the retirement of 50 underutilized reserves, a move driven by recommendations from risk service provider LlamaRisk and founder Stani Kulechov. This structural cleanup targets $98.1 million in supplied assets and $15.6 million in debt, marking a decisive shift toward rigorous risk containment rather than a retreat from multichain presence. The proposal seeks to streamline the protocol’s footprint by eliminating low-efficiency deployments while preserving core operational integrity across higher-performing networks.

The specific scope of the offboarding includes 21 matured Pendle principal token listings distributed across 11 deployments, as well as the complete retirement of all 25 reserves located on Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos. These balance figures were captured on July 28, serving as the baseline for the proposed adjustments. The initiative is currently structured as an ARFC, which functions as a detailed precursor to an Aave Improvement Proposal; it does not constitute proof of a completed on-chain vote or final execution. This procedural step ensures that the community has adequate time to review the technical implications before any irreversible changes are implemented on the protocol level.

Woofun AI data shows that the proposed exit from Aptos occurs merely 11 months after the launch of its V3 market, a timeline marked by severe performance degradation. Available liquidity on the network has plummeted by 94% over the past six months, while quarterly revenue has fallen below $1,000, rendering the market economically unviable. While reserves on Scroll, zkSync, Metis, and Soneium were already frozen, Sonic and Aptos remained active until this recommendation for freezing was issued. The stark contrast between the frozen status of older deployments and the active but failing state of newer ones highlights the urgency of the proposed intervention.

Governance history reveals a pattern of tightening controls, beginning with a vote on Dec. 5, 2025, where 923,400 votes supported increasing reserve factors on underperforming instances, with less than 1% opposition. This measure also established a $2 million annual revenue floor for new instance deployments, effectively raising the barrier to entry for future expansions. In April, Scroll was added to the affected protocols via an accelerated process, as LlamaRisk filed a direct-to-AIP proposal to freeze every Scroll reserve and raise selected reserve factors, citing rapid deterioration in network liquidity.

Furthermore, an updated Aave Risk Framework published on June 9 outlined criteria for winding down reserves, and this month’s announcement signals the de facto adoption of those rules by the protocol.

Founder Stani Kulechov emphasized in a Thursday post that this consolidation will "reduce Aave’s economic and technical risk surface as part of the new Aave Risk Framework and Technical Asset Listing Framework." This strategic refocusing does not signal an abandonment of the multichain expansion strategy but rather a disciplined application of continuous risk assessment across all deployments. The comments follow Aave’s recent launch on Avalanche earlier this month, demonstrating that the protocol continues to pursue growth on high-potential networks while systematically pruning inefficient ones. This marks a maturation in Aave’s operational philosophy, prioritizing quality and sustainability over sheer geographic expansion.