AAVE EMERGES AS DEFI'S BENCHMARK RATE STANDARD

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

Just as SOFR and Fed Funds rates anchor TradFi, DeFi now needs standardized benchmark rates - and Aave is becoming that foundation. With $58B in net deposits and over 50% of DeFi lending market share, Aave's rates reflect true market-wide credit conditions. Protocols like CoinDesk's Overnight Rates (CDOR), Cap, Level USD, and Plasma already use Aave's rates to price capital, route idle assets, or set hurdle yields. Its stability (e.g., only 20bps movement on a $100M deposit) enables floating-rate lending, structured products, and institutional risk management. Aave's dominance makes it DeFi's reference layer for rate discovery, liquidity, and scalability.