Crypto lending is the most mature corner of DeFi. Aave has operated since 2020, Compound since 2018, and both have processed tens of billions of dollars in loans with zero losses from core protocol failures. Morpho, launched 2022, has grown from experimental optimiser to a full lending market with competitive yields. Spark (Sky’s lending arm) has grown into the top five by TVL.
The sector is one of the few in crypto where the usage metric and the token value move broadly in step. AAVE in particular has tracked Aave’s TVL over multi-year windows more cleanly than most altcoins track anything.
For the broader view see the DeFi sector and our DeFi glossary entry. Data below is live from CoinGecko.