Aave The largest decentralized crypto lending platform, is launching a “savings account”-like consumer yield app, first opening the waitlist on Apple’s App Store.
With the Aave app, users will be able to earn up to 6.5% annualized returns, higher than money market funds, by leveraging Aave’s infrastructure lending protocol, and will be able to deposit funds from bank accounts, debit cards or stablecoins, according to a blog post on Monday. It also offers “balance protection” on deposits up to $1 million.
Aave’s move fits into a broader trend of decentralized finance (DeFi) crypto projects diversifying to offer neobank-like products directly to consumers. Betting protocol introduced a cash card product similar to Amex and other financial services, while Ethereum Layer-2 Mantle recently introduced its UR neobanking app offering Swiss bank accounts.
Retail crypto yield platforms, which became popular in the 2020-21 crypto bull cycle, suffered a major setback following the spectacular blowups of centralized lending platforms like Celsius and Block.fi in 2022, heralding a severe crypto winter.
Aave’s expansion comes after it acquired San Francisco-based financial technology company Stable Finance last month to develop a consumer savings app. Aave has raised $70 billion in deposits and has 2.5 million users, according to the blog post.
