It still blows my mind a bit. .@aave has now surpassed $50B in total deposits, and that number puts Aave among the top 50 banks in the United States by deposit volume.  To put it in perspective: • Aave now ranks higher than Deutsche Bank and Barclays US in terms of total deposits • It ranks 47 among all US-chartered commercial banks according to the data from FDIC This isn’t just about Aave. This is about DeFi itself starting to cross over into TradFi where institutions are now building onchain. What’s fueling this growth? The answer’s not “retail yield farmers” anymore. According to Aave founder @StaniKulechov, the surge is largely from traditional finance and fintech firms starting to use Aave as a backend for lending operations. They’re tapping into DeFi rails for speed, transparency, and global access. A few examples: → The Ethereum Foundation borrowed $2M in $GHO using $wETH as collateral on Aave → A new venture linked to Trump’s World Liberty Financial plans to launch Aave V3 lending markets → Institutions are warming up to tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and Aave is already experimenting with them. It’s no longer just about farming APYs on the latest meme pool. DeFi infra is being used for real capital movement, with real players,with proper regular and regulatory boundaries. And the kicker? Aave’s deposit base could soon surpass Circle, the issuer of $62B+ in USDC. That might sound crazy, but when you realize that most value is still off-chain, and tokenization is pulling it on-chain, it makes sense. RWAs + stablecoins + compliant DeFi = The path to $1T in deposits. This milestone feels different. Less hype, more signal. It’s a sign that DeFi is no longer just an experimental side project, It’s becoming the foundation for how finance might actually work in the future. We’re getting closer to mass adoption, not by making noise, but by building things serious people now trust with billions.