weETH surpasses $4B in deposits on Aave V3, becoming the protocol’s second-largest asset

Ether.fi’s wrapped liquid restaking token, weETH, has crossed $4 billion in deposits on Aave V3’s Ethereum market. That makes it the second-largest asset by deposit volume on the biggest lending protocol in DeFi, sitting ahead of stablecoins and wrapped Bitcoin.

The numbers behind the milestone

Over the past 30 days alone, weETH deposits grew by roughly 129,800 weETH, translating to more than $350 million in new supplied value. That’s a 10.9% increase in balance in a single month.

By early 2026, weETH’s total deposits on Aave were estimated at around $4.47 billion, placing it firmly in the number-two slot across the entire protocol. The only asset with a larger deposit base is native ETH itself.

ETH-linked assets now make up approximately 36% of Aave V3’s total value locked. weETH is a major driver of that concentration, functioning as a core collateral option for borrowers who want exposure to restaking yields while simultaneously leveraging their position in Aave’s lending markets.

Users deposit ETH into Ether.fi to earn restaking rewards, receive weETH as a receipt, then deposit that weETH into Aave to borrow against it.

Why liquid restaking tokens dominate Aave collateral

The rise of weETH on Aave is the product of deliberate governance decisions by the Aave DAO to integrate liquid restaking tokens into its collateral framework. Aave’s community has voted to onboard weETH across multiple chains, including Arbitrum, Base, and Scroll, extending the token’s usability well beyond Ethereum mainnet.

That multichain expansion means the $4 billion figure on Ethereum alone understates weETH’s total footprint across the Aave ecosystem. Depositors across various L2 deployments can earn points from both Ether.fi and the respective layer 2 networks, creating a multi-layered reward structure that makes weETH deposits more attractive than plain ETH in many cases.

What Ether.fi’s growth means for DeFi lending

weETH’s dominance on Aave is significant because Aave sets the standard for the sector. When a new collateral type becomes the second-largest asset on Aave, other lending protocols tend to follow suit.

Other liquid restaking protocols, including Renzo’s ezETH and Kelp’s rsETH, are vying for similar integrations across DeFi. weETH’s first-mover advantage on Aave, combined with its multichain deployment across Arbitrum, Base, and Scroll, has given it a structural position that competing tokens have yet to match.

For Aave, weETH deposits boost the protocol’s TVL numbers and generate borrowing demand, which in turn produces fee revenue for the DAO. The 36% share of TVL coming from ETH-linked assets indicates Aave’s growth is increasingly tied to the health and adoption of the restaking sector.