Aave Protocol

Aave is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol that lets people lend and borrow cryptocurrencies and real-world assets (RWAs) without having to go through a centralized intermediary. When they lend, they earn interest; when they borrow, they pay interest.

Aave was originally built atop the Ethereum network, with all the tokens on the network also using the Ethereum blockchain to process transactions; they are known as ERC20 tokens. Aave has since expanded to other chains, including Avalanche, Fantom, and Harmony.

Aave currently has pools for 30 Ethereum-based assets, including the stablecoins Tether, DAI, USD Coin, and Gemini dollar. Other markets include Avalanche, Fantom, Harmony, and Polygon, among others.

Aave also provides pools for real-world assets, like real estate, cargo and freight invoices, and payment advances. For such pools, a partner company called Centrifuge helps brick-and-mortar businesses tokenize aspects of their operations. Once tokenized, investors can purchase (or hold as collateral) these tokens, which behave similar to bonds and earn a yield on their holdings. Thus, these assets can be used as collateral for real-world businesses to borrow cash.