Aave DAO passed the Aave Request for Comment (ARFC) to deploy Aave V4 on Ethereum mainnet, with over 645,000 votes cast in favor and near-unanimous support across delegates. The proposal now advances to a formal on-chain AIP vote before mainnet launch.

What Changes in V4

Aave V4 is a structural overhaul. The core change is a hub-and-spoke architecture that replaces V3's isolated market model. A central "hub" handles liquidity routing and risk parameters, while modular "spoke" instances target specific asset classes or user segments. The design is intended to improve capital efficiency across the protocol and make it easier to onboard real-world assets (RWA) and institutional borrowers.

V4 also introduces sGHO, a yield-bearing version of Aave's native stablecoin GHO, and removes the need for V3's manual liquidity migration between isolated pools.

What Happens Next

The ARFC approval clears the path for an AIP (Aave Improvement Proposal) vote, which is the final binding governance step before deployment. If the AIP passes, contracts will be deployed and undergo a security phase before users can interact.

Aave V3 currently holds several billion dollars in total value locked across Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, and other chains. V4 is expected to launch on Ethereum first, with multi-chain expansion to follow.

The Aave Chan Initiative (ACI), which led much of the V4 coordination, has previously indicated a targeted launch window in 2026.