Aave Targets $1B Deposits, V4 Upgrades After SEC Investigation Ends

Aave CEO Stani Kulechov said the platform aims to nearly double real asset deposits to $1 billion, roll out V4 upgrades, and expand its mobile app to simplify DeFi, after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ended its four-year investigation.

In a December 16 job outlining a new master planKulechov said 2025 was Aave’s “most successful” year yet, while adding that he believes the platform is still at “day zero of what lies ahead.”

“In 2026, Aave will be home to new markets, new assets, and new integrations that have never existed before in DeFi,” the CEO said. “We will continue to engage with fintechs and work closely with the DAO and our partners on the rollout to gradually scale TVL throughout the year.”

AAVE price hit a 24-hour high of $189.89 after the news, but has since retraced to fall 1% to $183.83 as of 1:31 a.m. EST.

Aave Price (Source: CoinMarketCap)

Aave’s master plan has three pillars

The plan includes three main pillars: Aave V4, Horizon and Aave App.

Aave 4 is a major upgrade that will bring improvements to the DeFi platform’s borrowing and lending pools, its user interface (UI), and its liquidation settings.

Kulechov said the V4 upgrade will become “the backbone of all finance” and highlighted the lending markets that the new version’s Hub and Spoke model will provide.

Under this model, the hub refers to a single unified cross-chain liquidity pool that will serve as a central location for all assets in the protocol. Meanwhile, spokes refer to markets that are highly customizable and leverage hub liquidity.

Meanwhile, Horizon, which is Aave’s decentralized RWA marketplace, will onboard “many leading financial institutions” as part of a broader effort to become a primary player in the RWA space, Kulechov said.

“Horizon currently sits at $550 million in net deposits,” he said. “In 2026, we will look to quickly grow this to $1 billion and beyond by expanding our work with leading institutional partners such as Circle, Ripple, Franklin Templeton, VanEck and others to bring the world’s leading asset classes to Aave.”

Kulechov added that Aave’s mobile app, which is the final pillar of its 2026 plan, will serve as a “Trojan horse” to bring DeFi to the mainstream.

He emphasized that the mobile financial technology sector is a “$2 trillion-plus industry” and he wants to capitalize on this opportunity by making complex infrastructure easy to use. This solves a common problem with Web3 adoption.

SEC drops four-year investigation into Aave

Kulechov’s master plan comes after the SEC dropped an investigation into the platform.

Kulechov published on X on December 16 an August 12 letter from the regulator stating that he had “no intention of recommending any enforcement action” against Aave.

After four years, we are finally ready to announce that the SEC has concluded its investigation into the Aave Protocol.

This process required significant effort and resources from our team, and me personally as founder, to further protect Aave, its ecosystem, and DeFi… pic.twitter.com/aZeLrZz5ZQ

– Stani.eth (@StaniKulechov) December 16, 2025

The text of the letter suggested that the protocol was the subject of possible enforcement action by the SEC as part of an investigation launched four years ago.

“We are happy to put this behind us as we enter a new era where developers can truly build the future of finance,” said Aave CEO.

There are no publicly available records on the SEC’s website that show the agency issued a Wells Notice to Aave, which would have signaled its intent to take possible enforcement action.

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