Aave Founder Defends $8.45B Deposit Run as Protocol Resilience Test, Plans V4 Risk Overhaul

According to BlockBeats, on June 8, Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov defended the protocol amid an $8.45 billion deposit run in 48 hours, calling the incident proof of Aave's resilience. The run was triggered in April when a $292 million attack on KelpDAO's cross-chain bridge led attackers to mint worthless collateral and deposit it on Aave, enabling them to withdraw real wETH.

To address the crisis, Aave DAO allocated 25,000 ETH, with Kulechov personally adding 5,000 ETH, totaling roughly $300 million in rescue funding. The incident left approximately $123.7 million in bad debt on Aave V3. In response, Aave is planning a V4 upgrade that will restructure its risk management architecture using a modular "Hub-and-Spoke" design, enabling independent risk pricing for different collateral types and allowing the protocol to freeze specific assets before risks spread.