Aave integrates with OKX X Layer for zero-setup lending

Aave is now available on X Layer, OKX’s Ethereum-based Layer 2 blockchain. OKX Wallet users can now manage lending and borrowing on-chain directly. On X, Aave made the formal announcement: “Aave is live on X Layer and is now part of the OKX ecosystem.”

Aave v3.6 powers the deployment, offering greater capital efficiency and supporting assets such as USDT0, USDG, GHO, xBTC, xETH, xSOL, and staking derivatives. On certain liquid staking pairs, Aave’s efficiency mode raises borrowing limits to 88% LTV, well beyond the usual 70%.

Kulechov says Aave’s deployment on X Layer makes it easier for users to lend and borrow

The X Layer first launched on mainnet in April 2024, serving as a gateway for OKX customers to access the decentralized web. In August 2025, OKX simplified everything by moving all its DeFi and settlement activity onto the X Layer. The August upgrade also boosted the network’s speed to a lightning-fast 5,000 transactions per second, and permanently destroyed three-quarters of the circulating OKB supply.

With the Aave deployment, OKX has effectively removed the “multi-hop” friction of decentralized lending. Users no longer need to navigate independent interfaces or bridge assets; instead, they can access Aave’s liquidity on X Layer and trade their yield-bearing aTokens directly on the OKX exchange.

Speaking on the integration, OKX wallet wrote, “For X Layer, this is a meaningful step forward. A top-tier lending protocol expands what the whole ecosystem can do: more composability for developers building on the chain, more options for users who want their assets to work harder, and deeper liquidity overall.”

It added that Aave would be the ideal gateway for DeFi novices. Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave Labs, also remarked, “By expanding to X Layer, Aave connects its liquidity to a growing ecosystem of users and applications, making it easier to earn, borrow, and build applications on the network.”

Aave has been dealing with disputes about its governance and its possible structure change

Aave is still in the middle of major talks, as there is increasing friction between those pushing for a purely tokenized financial layer and a minority worried about the growing influence of key contributors. Markets are wondering if Aave can evolve into an inclusive, neutral settlement layer or become a platform where major collaborators make decisions about product design and profit-sharing.

Talks around Aave’s front-end earnings in December 2025 first revealed cracks in alignment, particularly over who should benefit from protocol-generated revenue. Back then, the network had instituted a major upgrade to its main online application, adopting the CoW Protocol for all collateral-related swaps and implementing a separate routing engine from ParaSwap.

Aave DAO at the time had taken a very aggressive position on revenue sovereignty, which only deepened when Aave Labs released a major, ambitious Aave Will Win manifesto in February. The plan called for all Aave-branded revenue to be returned to the DAO to ensure deeper integration between products and the protocol layer. Kulechov declared, “We’re becoming token-centric… but we recognize the value comes from both the protocol layer and the product layer.”

Later in March, Aave Chain Initiative (ACI) said it would cease operations due to a dispute with Aave Labs over the plan. Critics felt that the model went too far from community management and the power of core contributors.

Currently, Aave has about $47 billion in cumulative deposits and controls about 60% of the DeFi lending market share. According to DeFiLlama, the network also has about $24 billion in total value locked.

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