Aave (AAVE) is pushing beyond crypto lending and into real-world assets as new institutional interest builds. The protocol shared plans to tokenize solar infrastructureAave (AAVE) is pushing beyond crypto lending and into real-world assets as new institutional interest builds. The protocol shared plans to tokenize solar infrastructure

Here’s the AAVE Price If Yield Spreads Between Aave and Morpho Finally Collapse

2026/02/16 17:30
4 min read

Aave (AAVE) is pushing beyond crypto lending and into real-world assets as new institutional interest builds. The protocol shared plans to tokenize solar infrastructure for DeFi financing. 

However, Grayscale filed to convert its Aave trust into a spot ETF, which could bring AAVE exposure to traditional markets. These developments add a stronger long-term narrative around the protocol. 

But in the short term, traders are focused on something else: yield competition. Aave’s lending rates are being compared more directly to Morpho, and that gap may not last. The AAVE price is trading around $126.50.

AAVE Yield “Premium” May Be Mispriced

A new thread from Tanaka (@Tanaka_L2) sparked attention by pointing out that Morpho has been paying meaningfully higher USDC yields than Aave. Over the past year, Gauntlet Prime USDC on Morpho delivered roughly 150 basis points more than Aave’s USDC supply rate.

Both platforms have survived multiple stress cycles, and both are viewed as blue-chip DeFi lending venues. That’s why the spread looks strange. If the risk is similar, why is Morpho paying more?

Tanaka argues that the answer is not simple market inefficiency, but structural differences in who supplies capital and how each protocol is designed.

Read Also: Here’s Where Hedera (HBAR) Price Could Go This Week

One key point from Tanaka is that Aave’s USDC suppliers tend to be protocol treasuries, DAOs, and crypto-native capital. This creates broad distribution, deep liquidity, and lower maintenance funding. Aave is built for composability across DeFi, and that attracts long-term sticky liquidity.

Morpho, on the other hand, has more concentrated whale participation, along with funds and institutional partnerships. These vaults often run at higher utilization, which pushes yields up. Morpho is optimized for tailored markets, which can deliver higher returns but also introduces lender concentration risk.

In other words, the yield gap exists because these are not identical products. They reach different capital bases, and that leads to different equilibrium rates.

Why the Spread May Not Last For AAVE

Tanaka’s main takeaway is that this yield gap should shrink over time. Vault abstraction risk is fading, allocators are becoming more comfortable with curated markets, and the spread is already tightening.

He also pointed out that capital is mobile. Large players like Ethena allocating across both Aave and Morpho show that liquidity can rotate quickly when rates diverge.

If yields converge, Aave’s perceived “premium” could be repriced. In that scenario, AAVE may benefit as the market starts viewing the protocol as undervalued relative to its competitors.

Read Also: Bitcoin Price Crash to $39K? This Bear Market Bottom Metric Says the Pain Isn’t Over

Real-World Assets and ETF Momentum Add Support

Beyond lending rates, Aave is also expanding its narrative. Founder Stani Kulechov recently outlined a strategy to tokenize solar assets and bring renewable infrastructure financing on-chain. That opens the door to a much larger collateral market than crypto alone.

Grayscale’s filing for a spot Aave ETF adds another layer. Even if approval takes time, it signals that Wall Street demand for altcoin exposure is still building. More accessibility and liquidity could strengthen Aave’s position over the long run.

These catalysts don’t solve yield competition overnight, but they help reinforce Aave’s role as a core DeFi protocol.

AAVE Price Targets If the Spread Collapses

If Aave’s yield discount narrows and capital rotates back toward the protocol, AAVE could start reclaiming higher levels. 

The first upside zone sits near $140, which marks the next key resistance area from recent trading. A move above resistance could push the AAVE price toward $160, especially if the ETF story keeps gaining attention.

If weakness returns and the yield spread remains, AAVE could slip back to $115, with $100 as the next major support.

The main point is that if Aave and Morpho yields move closer together, AAVE may have room to catch up.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for daily crypto updates, market insights, and expert analysis.

The post Here’s the AAVE Price If Yield Spreads Between Aave and Morpho Finally Collapse appeared first on CaptainAltcoin.

Market Opportunity
AaveToken Logo
AaveToken Price(AAVE)
$125.21
$125.21$125.21
+1.12%
USD
AaveToken (AAVE) Live Price Chart
Disclaimer: The articles reposted on this site are sourced from public platforms and are provided for informational purposes only. They do not necessarily reflect the views of MEXC. All rights remain with the original authors. If you believe any content infringes on third-party rights, please contact service@support.mexc.com for removal. MEXC makes no guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the content and is not responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided. The content does not constitute financial, legal, or other professional advice, nor should it be considered a recommendation or endorsement by MEXC.

You May Also Like

Facts Vs. Hype: Analyst Examines XRP Supply Shock Theory

Facts Vs. Hype: Analyst Examines XRP Supply Shock Theory

Prominent analyst Cheeky Crypto (203,000 followers on YouTube) set out to verify a fast-spreading claim that XRP’s circulating supply could “vanish overnight,” and his conclusion is more nuanced than the headline suggests: nothing in the ledger disappears, but the amount of XRP that is truly liquid could be far smaller than most dashboards imply—small enough, in his view, to set the stage for an abrupt liquidity squeeze if demand spikes. XRP Supply Shock? The video opens with the host acknowledging his own skepticism—“I woke up to a rumor that XRP supply could vanish overnight. Sounds crazy, right?”—before committing to test the thesis rather than dismiss it. He frames the exercise as an attempt to reconcile a long-standing critique (“XRP’s supply is too large for high prices”) with a rival view taking hold among prominent community voices: that much of the supply counted as “circulating” is effectively unavailable to trade. His first step is a straightforward data check. Pulling public figures, he finds CoinMarketCap showing roughly 59.6 billion XRP as circulating, while XRPScan reports about 64.7 billion. The divergence prompts what becomes the video’s key methodological point: different sources count “circulating” differently. Related Reading: Analyst Sounds Major XRP Warning: Last Chance To Get In As Accumulation Balloons As he explains it, the higher on-ledger number likely includes balances that aggregators exclude or treat as restricted, most notably Ripple’s programmatic escrow. He highlights that Ripple still “holds a chunk of XRP in escrow, about 35.3 billion XRP locked up across multiple wallets, with a nominal schedule of up to 1 billion released per month and unused portions commonly re-escrowed. Those coins exist and are accounted for on-ledger, but “they aren’t actually sitting on exchanges” and are not immediately available to buyers. In his words, “for all intents and purposes, that escrow stash is effectively off of the market.” From there, the analysis moves from headline “circulating supply” to the subtler concept of effective float. Beyond escrow, he argues that large strategic holders—banks, fintechs, or other whales—may sit on material balances without supplying order books. When you strip out escrow and these non-selling stashes, he says, “the effective circulating supply… is actually way smaller than the 59 or even 64 billion figure.” He cites community estimates in the “20 or 30 billion” range for what might be truly liquid at any given moment, while emphasizing that nobody has a precise number. That effective-float framing underpins the crux of his thesis: a potential supply shock if demand accelerates faster than fresh sell-side supply appears. “Price is a dance between supply and demand,” he says; if institutional or sovereign-scale users suddenly need XRP and “the market finds that there isn’t enough XRP readily available,” order books could thin out and prices could “shoot on up, sometimes violently.” His phrase “circulating supply could collapse overnight” is presented not as a claim that tokens are destroyed or removed from the ledger, but as a market-structure scenario in which available inventory to sell dries up quickly because holders won’t part with it. How Could The XRP Supply Shock Happen? On the demand side, he anchors the hypothetical to tokenization. He points to the “very early stages of something huge in finance”—on-chain tokenization of debt, stablecoins, CBDCs and even gold—and argues the XRP Ledger aims to be “the settlement layer” for those assets.He references Ripple CTO David Schwartz’s earlier comments about an XRPL pivot toward tokenized assets and notes that an institutional research shop (Bitwise) has framed XRP as a way to play the tokenization theme. In his construction, if “trillions of dollars in value” begin settling across XRPL rails, working inventories of XRP for bridging, liquidity and settlement could rise sharply, tightening effective float. Related Reading: XRP Bearish Signal: Whales Offload $486 Million In Asset To illustrate, he offers two analogies. First, the “concert tickets” model: you think there are 100,000 tickets (100B supply), but 50,000 are held by the promoter (escrow) and 30,000 by corporate buyers (whales), leaving only 20,000 for the public; if a million people want in, prices explode. Second, a comparison to Bitcoin’s halving: while XRP has no programmatic halving, he proposes that a sudden adoption wave could function like a de facto halving of available supply—“XRP’s version of a halving could actually be the adoption event.” He also updates the narrative context that long dogged XRP. Once derided for “too much supply,” he argues the script has “totally flipped.” He cites the current cycle’s optics—“XRP is sitting above $3 with a market cap north of around $180 billion”—as evidence that raw supply counts did not cap price as tightly as critics claimed, and as a backdrop for why a scarcity narrative is gaining traction. Still, he declines to publish targets or timelines, repeatedly stressing uncertainty and risk. “I’m not a financial adviser… cryptocurrencies are highly volatile,” he reminds viewers, adding that tokenization could take off “on some other platform,” unfold more slowly than enthusiasts expect, or fail to get to “sudden shock” scale. The verdict he offers is deliberately bound. The theory that “XRP supply could vanish overnight” is imprecise on its face; the ledger will not erase coins. But after examining dashboard methodologies, escrow mechanics and the behavior of large holders, he concludes that the effective float could be meaningfully smaller than headline supply figures, and that a fast-developing tokenization use case could, under the right conditions, stress that float. “Overnight is a dramatic way to put it,” he concedes. “The change could actually be very sudden when it comes.” At press time, XRP traded at $3.0198. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
Share
NewsBTC2025/09/18 11:00
US and UK Set to Seal Landmark Crypto Cooperation Deal

US and UK Set to Seal Landmark Crypto Cooperation Deal

The United States and the United Kingdom are preparing to announce a new agreement on digital assets, with a focus on stablecoins, following high-level talks between senior officials and major industry players.
Share
Cryptodaily2025/09/18 00:49
Dogecoin ETF Set to Go Live Today

Dogecoin ETF Set to Go Live Today

The post Dogecoin ETF Set to Go Live Today appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Altcoins 18 September 2025 | 09:35 The U.S. market is about to see a first-of-its-kind moment in crypto investing. Beginning September 18, investors are expected to be able to buy exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied directly to XRP and Dogecoin, bringing two of the most recognizable digital assets into mainstream brokerage accounts. The products — the REX-Osprey XRP ETF (XRPR) and REX-Osprey Dogecoin ETF (DOJE) — are being launched through a partnership between REX Shares and Osprey Funds. It marks the first time spot XRP and spot DOGE exposure will be available in ETF form for U.S. traders, a move that analysts describe as historic for the broader digital asset space. Industry voices quickly highlighted the importance of the rollout. ETF Store President Nate Geraci noted that the launch not only introduces the first Dogecoin ETF but also finally delivers spot XRP access for traditional investors. Bloomberg ETF analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart confirmed that trading will begin September 18, following a brief delay from the original timeline. Both ETFs are housed under a single prospectus that also covers planned funds for TRUMP and BONK, though those launches have yet to receive confirmed dates. By wrapping these tokens in an ETF structure, investors will no longer need to navigate crypto exchanges or wallets to gain exposure — instead, access will be as simple as purchasing shares through a brokerage account. The arrival of these products could set the stage for a wave of new altcoin-based ETFs, expanding the landscape beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum and opening the door to mainstream adoption of other popular tokens. Author Alexander Zdravkov is a person who always looks for the logic behind things. He is fluent in German and has more than 3 years of experience in the crypto space, where he skillfully identifies new…
Share
BitcoinEthereumNews2025/09/18 14:38