Aave Labs acqui-hires Stable Finance team to build consumer-friendly DeFi apps
Aave Labs, the organization behind the largest decentralized crypto lending protocol, is purchasing San Francisco-based Stable Finance — the latest sign of startup consolidation in the stablecoin sector.
CoinDesk was first to report on the acqui-hire, which will fold Stable Finance’s engineering team into Aave. Stable Finance founder Mario Baxter Cabrera will join as director of product.
Stable Finance developed a consumer-focused iOS application that offers access to high-yield savings accounts powered by peer-to-peer lending markets. The project claims to have notched $38 billion in deposits, in part by abstracting away the complexity associated with DeFi.
“Yield Accounts aim to provide low-volatility returns through the accrual of interest,” the team wrote on its website, drawing comparisons to high-yield savings, cash, and bond accounts. Stable’s accounts reportedly earn up to 16.52% by lending to decentralized markets.
According to Aave Labs, the Stable team will focus on building new consumer apps, “advancing new DeFi product initiatives for mainstream users,” while the existing Stable platform will be phased out.
“We believe the future of finance is onchain, and this acquisition reinforces our commitment to turning onchain finance into everyday finance – earning interest, borrowing, and saving,” Aave founder Stani Kulechov said. “Mario and the Stable team have built unique technology supporting a seamless user experience that will help accelerate our consumer roadmap and extend the Aave protocol to new users.”
Aave updates
The acquisition is the latest in a series of developments for Aave, including the launch of its institutional lending platform, Horizon, which recently crossed the $300 million deposit milestone, and the adoption of new collateral assets from Maple Finance.
It also comes amid a rising trend of stablecoin-related mergers and acquisitions, including late-stage fintech firm Modern Treasury’s purchase of Beam, announced on Tuesday, and an alleged multi-billion dollar bidding war between Coinbase and Mastercard for BVNK, to name a few recent examples.
Aave, particularly Aave v3, has seen a notable spike in activity over the past several months and recently crossed a new all-time high of $26.09 billion in TVL. The protocol has generated between $2 million and $4 million in daily fees since mid-July, according to The Block’s data.
Terms of the Stable purchase were not disclosed. The Block reached out to Kulechov for comment.
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