本报告以去中心化借贷协议 Aave 为研究对象，认为其定位正从加密原生借贷协议演变为去中心化抵押品流动性协议。Aave 是规模最大的无许可去中心化借贷协议，累计借贷规模达数千亿美元，历史累计清算超 30 亿美元且未产生坏账。产品体系包括核心流动性市场、清算引擎、原生稳定币 GHO、面向机构与现实世界资产的 Horizon，以及采用枢纽—辐条架构的 V4 升级；Horizon 自 2025 年上线以来存款已超 4 亿美元。报告认为，代币化解决资产如何上链，Aave 则试图解决资产上链后如何被融资、加杠杆与再抵押，抵押品流动性可能比代币化本身更具价值，其角色类似链上的回购、证券借贷与主经纪业务。长期机会取决于监管进展、Horizon 与 V4 的执行及机构采用节奏，竞争可能来自 Morpho 以及 DTCC、JPMorgan Kinexys、BNY、State Street 等机构。
Citi analyzes Aave, arguing its framing as a purely crypto-native lending protocol is increasingly incomplete. As tokenized assets, stablecoins and institutional participation move toward the financial mainstream, Aave may be positioned as a decentralized collateral mobility protocol, with Aave V4, Horizon and GHO all pointing toward the intersection of collateral, liquidity and financing. Aave is the largest decentralized permissionless lending protocol, supporting hundreds of billions of dollars in cumulative borrowing and over $3 billion of cumulative liquidations without bad debt. Its product suite includes core liquidity markets, a liquidation engine, the native GHO stablecoin, Horizon for institutional and real-world asset lending (over $400 million in deposits since its 2025 launch), and the hub-and-spoke V4 upgrade. The report argues that while tokenization determines what assets live onchain, Aave may determine how those assets are financed, leveraged, pledged and integrated i