Less than 24 hours after the U.S. Senate voted 49-50 against advancing the Clarity Act, Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov told The Block at Avalanche Summit in New York that decentralized finance may need an "Uber path" to regulation: grow adoption until policymakers cannot avoid setting clear rules.
Kulechov said he remains "very hopeful" that Clarity can still happen this year, noting many lawmakers on both sides want clearer definitions, safeguards and market structure for the industry. If the legislation does not advance, however, he argued the ultimate goal is to use the technology to "empower millions of people around the world."
Aave's next growth phase is focused on extending DeFi infrastructure beyond crypto-native assets into tokenized stocks, securities and other real-world assets. The protocol unveiled a real-world asset hub on Avalanche targeting institutional lending and borrowing, allowing eligible tokenized assets to be used as collateral to borrow stablecoins. Kulechov said the move responds to institutional loan demand that Aave wants to bring onchain, adding: "Institutions come with size, so that's where a lot of the demand will come."
The strategy extends Aave beyond the crypto-native collateral that has historically powered DeFi lending. Aave V4 went live on Avalanche in July with a hub-and-spoke architecture that lets different lending markets share liquidity while separating risk profiles. A dedicated RWA market was identified as a later stage of that rollout. Aave Labs has also proposed an isolated V4 hub and spoke that would allow institutionally custodied assets to support stablecoin borrowing, with collateral remaining with a custodian while an onchain representation is used within Aave.
Kulechov said tokenization is no longer the main obstacle. "Tokenization and DeFi are not a technological challenge anymore. I think it's a go-to-market challenge." Aave is also building a consumer-facing app designed to simplify savings by abstracting wallets, networks and stablecoins, letting users move money between bank accounts and Aave. "I think DeFi will be plugging all finance in the next couple of decades," Kulechov said.
