Aave has opened a dedicated lending vault in its V4 hub on the Base chain that accepts selected Coinbase tokenized equities as collateral, allowing eligible non-U.S. users to borrow USDC against shares of seven major U.S. tech companies. The accepted assets include tokenized Apple (AAPLc), Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDAc), and Tesla (TSLAc).
The vault has already attracted $8.14M in collateral value based on current Coinbase tokenized valuations, although lending utilization remains low at around 5%, with roughly $495K in loans issued. The stocks are collateral-only and are not borrowable themselves. Chainlink oracle feeds provide market data for the collateralization process, but because token prices are based on official stock trading, they do not update over the weekend, creating unique risk-management challenges compared with crypto-based loans.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov explained the protocol’s approach, saying it measures asset volatility, sets liquidation thresholds against the bad debt buffer the market is prepared to defend, and calibrates liquidation bonuses to clear positions before prices move past safety margins. The underlying tokenized shares are held with Alpaca Securities LLC, a regulated broker-dealer, and dividends are reinvested rather than paid out to token holders.
The launch is part of Aave’s broader expansion into tokenized real-world assets and traditional finance. Aave has recovered its total value locked to over $19B, the highest level since the Kelp DAO hack, and carries more than $13B in tokenized loans. AAVE trades around $148.08 with about $255M in daily volume, near its upper range for 2026, while open interest is about $233M after a recent 9% drop from liquidations.
