Aave Labs reviews V4 progress and distinguishes live markets from proposals still being prepared

A November report on October development

Aave Labs published its October development update on the protocol's governance forum on November 2, 2026. The team says Aave V4 exceeded $1.5 billion in deposits and $450 million in active loans. These figures come from the team's report and are not a real-time measurement when the article is read. They describe V4 usage during the period presented, rather than the combined size of all Aave markets.

The lending protocol allows users to deposit assets and borrow others under collateral rules. The report also says the market for loans backed by tokenized stocks on Base exceeded $9 million in deposits and approached $4 million in loans. A deposit is not equivalent to a loan actually drawn. These data should therefore neither be added together indiscriminately nor interpreted as revenue or profit already earned by governance.

Externally curated markets with ownership retained by the DAO

The update presents Sentora as the first external curator integrated into Aave V4. The described arrangement lets it configure a dedicated set of Ethereum markets, including collateral, risk parameters, interest rate curves, and oracles. The Aave DAO retains contract ownership and receives 50% of this instance's revenue under the framework described. Changes that increase risk pass through a forty-eight-hour timelock. This delay structures governance; it does not guarantee against losses.

The markets described as live allow borrowing of RLUSD, PYUSD, and OUSD against supported collateral. The report distinguishes that availability from other work still at the proposal stage. The Babylon team has published a governance proposal to use native bitcoin as collateral through Trustless Bitcoin Vaults. The document describes BTC remaining locked on Bitcoin, without being wrapped, bridged, or held by a custodian. Aave Labs says it continues supporting the integration toward launch: the proposal does not mean general availability has already been achieved.

Executed changes differ from upcoming audits

Aave Labs says it published a proposal to upgrade V3 to V3.8, presented as a security release. The text announces audits by Certora and third parties before an execution proposal. Publication of the update therefore does not mean those future audits are complete or the version is deployed. The same care applies to new integrations: their status must be read individually rather than inferred from a general roadmap heading.

By contrast, the report describes the retirement of certain risky oracles for long-tail assets and an increase in liquidation-related fees on certain markets as executed. It explains that fixed-price adapters and parameter changes are intended to support an orderly wind-down of affected positions. These management measures do not constitute a new independent market price. The next verifiable milestones are documented votes, audits, and executions. The update's value lies in separating observed activity, live markets, and work still requiring approval.