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Grayscale Predicts This DeFi Token Will Become a ‘Household Name’ in Crypto

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Grayscale Research has labeled Aave (AAVE) a potential “household name,” describing the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) lending protocol as “a bank without bankers” in a new blog.

“Aave is not yet a household name, but we think it will be eventually. Aave is essentially a bank without bankers—a decentralized lending marketplace on Ethereum and other blockchains that takes deposits and makes loans without any human operators,” Grayscale’s Head of Research  Zach Pandl wrote.

Pandl pointed to the Bank of Canada’s report. Researchers found that Aave operates with a notably lower net interest margin (NIM) than leading US and Canadian banks, largely due to its lower intermediation costs.

“The Bank of Canada concluded that ‘lending without traditional intermediaries is viable in a technical and operational sense,’ and that Aave ‘operates continuously, transparently, and with minimal overhead, demonstrating the potential of protocol-based credit markets.’ The combination of lower operational costs, attractive rates, and ‘always on’ banking could be a powerful combination for adoption and long-term growth,” the blog added.

Pandl noted that Aave is still “young” and has yet to address complex challenges like credit scoring and undercollateralized lending. However, no lending system is flawless, as recent stress in private credit markets highlights.

“We believe that Aave, a leading onchain lending platform, and its native AAVE token, are poised for long-term growth,” he concluded.

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Analyst Nick highlighted the protocol’s strengths in a recent post. It generated approximately $142 million in net revenue in 2025, with cumulative lending volume surpassing $1 trillion. Fees reached over $885 million, putting it on track for a strong run rate into 2026.

Token Terminal data showed its TVL has declined since late 2025 to $42.6 billion in April. Despite this, Aave remains the top lending protocol, controlling around 50% of the market share.

“Aave is becoming the onchain credit layer that survives cycles and pulls in real-world capital imo,” he said.

However, on-chain data paints a more cautious picture. AAVE exchange reserves surged to 2.23 million tokens, reversing a year-long declining trend and signaling potential sell pressure.

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Whales have also been offloading the token this year, while recent contributor departures have impacted investor confidence. AAVE trades near $90, down roughly 5% over the past day amid a broader market downturn.

AAVE Price Performance
AAVE Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto Markets

Whether Grayscale’s long-term thesis plays out may depend less on protocol metrics and more on whether market sentiment can catch up to the fundamentals.

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The post Grayscale Predicts This DeFi Token Will Become a ‘Household Name’ in Crypto appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Crypto World

Crypto Exchanges Vie for TradFi Commodities Market, Pricing Gaps Remain

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Crypto Exchanges Vie for TradFi Commodities Market, Pricing Gaps Remain

Cryptocurrency exchanges are taking a growing market share from traditional finance (TradFi) trading venues through tokenized commodities products, but the mainstream adoption of tokenized precious metals remains limited by pricing and liquidity issues.

Silver perpetuals have reached about 40% of the equivalent volume of the Comex Silver (SI) Contract at their peak, the world’s largest silver futures market, which accounts for over 70% of global exchange-traded silver futures volume, according to a Thursday report from Binance Research.

During March and April, tokenized silver accounted for 14.90% and 14.98% of the Comex’s volume, respectively, up from just 1.37% in January.

The growth suggests crypto exchanges are capturing more demand for round-the-clock exposure to traditional assets, particularly in metals-linked perpetuals, but analysts at Kaiko said liquidity depth and price formation still pose major obstacles to wider adoption among traditional investors.

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Average Aggregated TradFi-Perps Volume to The Primary Futures Equivalents on Traditional Exchanges. Source: Binance Research

Crypto TradFi perps need reliable pricing, strong liquidity

Tokenized commodities offer 24/7 trading, which can create vulnerabilities compared to TradFi gold and silver futures, where the holiday and weekend close create “natural circuit breakers that actually protect market quality,” Kaiko research analyst Laurens Fraussen told Cointelegraph.

This exposes tokenized commodities to degraded order book debt, widened spreads and less reference pricing from closed traditional venues.

Legacy commodities offerings avoid these issues through centralized clearing, consolidated liquidity, standardized contracts and “coordinated operating hours that prevent liquidity deserts,” Fraussen said, adding that crypto needs “better chain abstraction and unified liquidity aggregation” to compete with TradFi.

Related: NYSE taps Securitize for 24/7 tokenized securities platform

Despite the infrastructure concerns, tokenized gold perps have surpassed the gold futures trading volumes of several regional commodity exchanges, a trend seeing monthly acceleration, according to Binance Research.

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Figure 3: Average Aggregated Volume of Gold-Perps to Gold Futures in Regional Exchanges, in March

Binance Research also said gold perpetuals outpaced several regional commodity exchanges in March, reaching 401% compared to gold futures trading on the Japanese energy commodities futures exchange TOCOM, 228% of India’s Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) and 216% of the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX).

Binance attributed part of this growth to “market-moving events” that routinely occur on weekends, which would leave investors exposed to gap risks through traditional venues operating under regular trading hours.

Magazine: Can Robinhood or Kraken’s tokenized stocks ever be truly decentralized?