Lending Protocols

DeFi Terminal tracks 4 major lending protocols with $25.5B in total value locked across Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Base. Decentralized lending protocols allow users to supply crypto assets to earn yield or borrow against their holdings by posting collateral. Each protocol differs in its approach to risk management, supported assets, governance structure, and chain deployment strategy. Aave V3 is the largest multi-chain lending protocol, featuring isolated markets, efficiency mode, and cross-chain portals. Spark, originally a fork of Aave V3, operates as the lending arm of the MakerDAO ecosystem with deep DAI liquidity and competitive stablecoin rates. Compound V3 (Comet) uses a single-borrowable-asset model where each market is isolated around one debt token, simplifying risk management. When evaluating protocols, key metrics include total value locked as a measure of trust and liquidity depth, the number of active markets indicating asset diversity, and supply APY reflecting current earning opportunities. DeFi Terminal provides these metrics in real time sourced directly from on-chain data.