Surges

In brief

• Aave’s token surged 20% as Congress advanced the GENIUS Act, a bill that could bring regulatory clarity to stablecoins.
• The protocol, which supports lending and borrowing of major stablecoins, recently surpassed $25B in Total Value Locked.
• AAVE is up over 90% in 30 days, outperforming major altcoins and the broader crypto market.

The native token of DeFi lending protocol Aave has surged by double-digit gains on the day, rallying alongside a key procedural vote in Congress on the long-anticipated GENIUS Act.

If enacted, the bill would provide long-awaited regulatory clarity for stablecoins—a sector in which Aave is deeply embedded.

Specifically, the act would allow banks and other companies to issue their own stablecoins provided they meet certain requirements, adding to further speculation it could bring about wider institutional adoption. 

The bill now needs only one more vote to pass. 

Aave plays a significant role in the stablecoin economy by allowing users to lend, borrow, and earn yield on stablecoins like USDC, USDT, DAI, among others.

The protocol also introduced its own overcollateralised stablecoin, GHO, in 2023, designed to keep value capture within the Aave ecosystem.

Its namesake token has increased by 20% to $262 over the past 24 hours, and more than 90% over 30 days, CoinGecko data shows. 

Not only has the altcoin outperformed the overall crypto market—up just 0.2% in the past 24 hours—it’s also surpassed the other best-performing altcoins. 

Though it’s still some way off its recent peak of $383.49 from December 28, 2024.

Still, the protocol’s Total Value Locked reached an all-time high of over $25 billion this month, surpassing market leaders like Lido (LDO) and EigenLayer (EIGEN), indicating growing interest in the token’s ecosystem, per DeFi Llama data.

The renewed interest in Aave also follows strategic moves by World Liberty Financial, the Donald Trump-backed crypto venture, which in December acquired more than 3,300 AAVE tokens as part of a $5 million bet on DeFi assets.

The project’s community later approved launching Aave v3, offering borrowing and lending services using ETH, WBTC, USDC, and USDT.

Under the arrangement, AaveDAO receives 7% of WLFI’s circulating token supply and a 20% share of protocol fees—an uncommon revenue-sharing deal that further integrates the protocol into one of the most high-profile U.S. political crypto initiatives.

That tie-in, paired with growing institutional attention around the GENIUS Act, appears to be fueling investor conviction in Aave’s longer-term regulatory and adoption outlook.

Elsewhere in the market, Ethereum (ETH) rose 4% on the day, Chainlink (LINK) gained 3.2%, and Solana (SOL) added 2.6% to trade at $166, CoinGecko data shows.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

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