Aave’s move is part of a trend in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols expanding to offer neobank-like services.
Aave AAVE$178.95, the largest decentralized crypto lending platform, is rolling out a “savings account”-like consumer yield app, opening waitlist on Apple’s App Store first.
With the Aave App, users will be able to earn up to 6.5% annualized yield, higher than money market funds, leveraging Aave’s infrastructure lending protocol, and can deposit funds from bank accounts, debit cards or in stablecoins, according to a blog post on Monday. It also offers “balance protection” on deposits up to $1 million.
Aave’s move fits into a broader trend of decentralized finance (DeFi) crypto projects branching out to offer neobank-like products directly to consumers. Staking protocol ETHFI$0.8902 introduced an Amex-like cash card product and other financial services, while Ethereum layer-2 Mantle recently debuted its neobank app UR offering Swiss bank accounts.
Retail crypto yield platforms, which grew popular in the 2020-21 crypto bull cycle, suffered a big setback following the spectacular blowups of centralized lending platforms such as Celsius and Block.fi in 2022, portending a severe crypto winter.
Aave’s expansion comes after acquiring last month San Francisco-based fintech company Stable Finance for developing a consumer savings app. Aave has gathered $70 billion in deposits and boasts 2.5 million in users, the blog post said.
