Aave's governance is weighing a proposal to wind down six underperforming V3 markets and offboard dozens of low-use reserves. The move, still in early discussion, targets deployments on Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos — chains where activity has failed to cover basic operational costs.
Why the cleanup is needed
The proposal, submitted by risk analysis firm LlamaRisk, argues that maintaining small, low-adoption markets carries operational risk and cost that outweigh any benefit. These six markets collectively hold $98.1 million in deposits and $15.6 million in debt — less than 1% of Aave's total deposits. Yet they generated under $5,000 per quarter, not enough to pay for oracles and monitoring.
LlamaRisk's rationale is straightforward: Aave is one of DeFi's most important lending protocols, and resources should focus on larger, more productive markets. The proposal also includes offboarding 50 low-use reserves and 21 matured Pendle Principal Tokens across the broader Aave ecosystem.
The markets and the numbers
The affected chains are all part of Aave's V3 expansion into layer-2 networks and alternative L1s. Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium, and Aptos each host a V3 market that never gained meaningful traction. Combined, they represent a tiny slice of Aave's $15 billion-plus deposit base.
Debt on these markets is just $15.6 million, and the revenue they generate is negligible. LlamaRisk's analysis suggests the cost of maintaining separate oracle feeds, risk monitoring, and governance overhead for each market exceeds the income. The proposal doesn't specify exact cost figures, but the gap is clear: less than $5,000 per quarter in revenue versus ongoing operational expenses.
The proposal is currently at the ARFC stage — Aave's first formal step in governance. That means it's still under discussion, not a done deal. The community can debate, suggest changes, or reject it. If it gains enough support, it will move to a Snapshot vote, then to an on-chain AIP (Aave Improvement Proposal) for final execution.
LlamaRisk has not set a timeline for the next steps. The affected markets remain live for now. Users with positions on those chains can still interact with them, but the proposal signals that Aave's governance is willing to prune underperforming branches to keep the protocol lean. The question now is whether the community agrees that small, quiet markets are more trouble than they're worth.
