Aave Labs has officially launched Horizon, a new platform designed for institutions to borrow stablecoins against tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) such as U.S. Treasurys and collateralized loan obligations.
Built on a permissioned version of Aave V3, Horizon combines institutional compliance with DeFi liquidity. Qualified institutions can post tokenized securities as collateral and borrow stablecoins like USDC, RLUSD, and Aave’s native GHO, with round-the-clock access and predictable liquidity. Permissioning is applied at the token level to ensure compliance, while stablecoin markets remain open to preserve DeFi composability.
“Aave Labs built Horizon for the growth of tokenized collateral, enabling lending and borrowing at institutional scale,” founder Stani Kulechov said. “It delivers the infrastructure and deep liquidity institutions need to operate onchain.”
At launch, Horizon has secured partnerships with Circle, Chainlink, Centrifuge, Superstate, Ethena, Securitize, VanEck, Hamilton Lane, WisdomTree, and others. The platform supports a broad set of tokenized securities, including U.S. government bond funds, short-duration yield products, and tokenized treasuries from firms like Superstate and VanEck.
Chainlink’s SmartData infrastructure plays a central role, providing real-time onchain net asset value (NAV) data for tokenized funds. This allows Horizon to support automated, overcollateralized lending backed by live valuations. Future integrations will add Proof of Reserves and SmartAUM for enhanced transparency.
With more than $25 billion in tokenized assets already onchain but often siloed, Aave Labs argues Horizon provides the missing layer of utility — turning RWAs into usable collateral for stablecoin liquidity. Centrifuge CEO Bhaji Illuminati noted, “The true potential of RWAs isn’t just tokenization, but what you can do with them once they’re onchain. Horizon is a powerful example of that.”
The launch builds on Aave Labs’ broader push into RWAs, which it previewed earlier this year. Horizon also serves as a key revenue stream for the Aave DAO and reflects Aave’s strategy to position itself as the bridge between decentralized finance and traditional markets.
Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, called the initiative “a very exciting new chapter for Aave and for the DeFi industry,” highlighting its potential to connect top financial institutions to blockchain-native infrastructure.
