Solana Foundation Joins Fight to Save DeFi, Lends $USDT on AAVE

Casting aside the slings and arrows of cross-chain rivalries, the Solana Foundation has made its first-ever capital deployment outside the Solana Ecosystem.

Joining DeFi United, the Solana Foundation has deposited an undisclosed amount of $USDT into AAVE, an EVM-based lending app left with around $180M in bad debt following the KelpDAO bridge exploit.

The Foundation’s timely support of crypto’s biggest lending app coincides with the listing of its native token, $AAVE, on Solana, made possible by Sunrise DeFi.

Solana Foundation Deploys Capital to EVM

With Ethereum’s DeFi economy still reeling in the wake of the KelpDAO bridge exploit, AAVE has embraced an unexpected supporter. Joining DeFi United, an initiative spawned to restore AAVE’s bad debt, Solana Foundation president Lily Liu has announced that the non-profit has begun lending $USDT from its treasury to the lending venue.

The Solana Foundation’s support comes after leading EVM-based protocols came together to contribute to AAVE’s recovery. Under DeFi United, over 43,500 $ETH, valued at over $101M, has been committed from Ethereum ecosystem pillars like Ether.fi, Lido, Golem, and AAVE Founder Stani Kulechov.

Much of the crypto community has celebrated the Solana Foundation’s support of a rival DeFi economy in the name of a larger vision. 

However, commentators remarked that there was still a glaring absence among DeFi United contributors.

As DeFi participants lose faith in the onchain economy, the Ethereum Foundation has done little to inspire confidence in its ecosystem. While the Solana Foundation has opted to deploy stablecoins in AAVE to alleviate a liquidity crunch, the Ethereum Foundation is yet to address last week’s exploit, choosing instead to sell 10,000 $ETH in an OTC deal to Bitmine.

Sunrise Lists $AAVE in Solana DeFi

Alongside the Foundation’s support of AAVE, the Solana DeFi Economy has taken collaboration even further. 

Through Sunrise DeFi, a Wormhole-powered asset gateway, the $AAVE token has been listed natively on Solana and integrated into leading applications across the onchain economy. Wormhole CEO Saeed Badreg asserts that the $AAVE listing represents a critical moment for DeFi, demonstrating Solana’s willingness to unite capital markets.

“Sunrise is about uniting capital markets. The speed at which the Solana ecosystem and the broader community have come together to expand Aave and support DeFi United has been incredible to be a part of.” - Saeed Badreg, CEO, Wormhole Labs

$AAVE joins a rapidly growing list of foreign tokens, including $MON, $HYPE, and $SUI, listed on Solana via Sunrise, which reportedly enabled over $500M in 30D trading volume earlier this year.

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