Privacy-focused decentralized exchange (DEX) Grvt has announced a strategic partnership with the decentralized lending protocol Aave. The integration enables traders on Grvt's platform to generate yield on the capital deposited as collateral for their perpetual futures (perp) trading positions, a feature the company calls "composable yield."
The core innovation addresses a major inefficiency in traditional perp trading, where collateral sits idle, serving only to maintain margin requirements. Through Grvt's proprietary stackable yield engine, ONE Balance, and with the help of the Aave ecosystem protocol TokenLogic, eligible collateral can now simultaneously back open trading positions and earn sustainable on-chain yield via Aave's lending markets. Grvt states this is the first instance of a perpetual futures DEX embedding an external yield source directly into live trading collateral.
According to Grvt CEO Hong Yea, while most competitors focus on expanding utility through more markets, Grvt is prioritizing capital productivity. "By embedding Aave’s yield-bearing infrastructure directly into our trading engine, we are fundamentally increasing the intrinsic value of every dollar deposited on Grvt," Yea emphasized.
Aave Labs founder and CEO Stani Kulechov highlighted the significance for traders: "Stablecoins that aren’t earning yield are an opportunity cost for traders... This integration lets Grvt users earn on their collateral while they trade, a major capital efficiency improvement." The yield potential is tied to prevailing conditions in Aave's markets, with Grvt citing potential returns of up to 11%.
The technical integration is facilitated by Grvt's architecture built on its own zero-knowledge appchain using the ZKsync stack. ZKsync's recent Atlas upgrade, which provides sub-second finality for Layer-2 transactions, is key to enabling this interoperability by eliminating delays when positions are updated or liquidated, allowing idle capital across Ethereum and L2s to be used productively.
Alongside the integration, Grvt unveiled a revamped mobile application designed to streamline the perps trading experience with improved navigation, portfolio visibility, and risk management controls. The partnership is part of Grvt's broader ambition to become a nerve center for institutional DeFi, moving towards a unified on-chain brokerage model where trading, earning, and investing converge in a single, capital-efficient system.
Aave, which recently surpassed $1 trillion in cumulative lending volume and leads with nearly $27 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL), extends its lending markets to a new segment of derivatives traders through this collaboration.
