#稳定币 Seeing Aave's announced three strategic pillars for 2026, my first reaction was to dig out old notes from ten years ago. Who could have imagined in 2015 that DeFi lending would grow to this extent—$75 billion in net deposits at its peak, $885 million in fee income, accounting for 59% of the entire lending market? What lies behind these numbers? It’s the cycle of repetition.

The Horizon line is the most worth exploring. Institutional-grade RWA markets, US Treasury tokenization, using stablecoins as lending tools—these are essentially the points where traditional finance and on-chain finance connect. History shows us that each wave of genuine growth doesn’t come from retail frenzy but from the order established when large funds enter the market. The 2017 ICO bubble burst, and the 2020 DeFi summer cooled down, but every time there’s a pullback, the protocols that survive are doing the same thing: transforming themselves into infrastructure.

Aave V4’s ambition to handle trillions of dollars in assets, combined with user-facing mobile products like Aave App, seems like writing two stories at once. One for institutions, one for ordinary users. I’ve seen this dual-track approach in history—success is rare. But given Aave’s current scale and market position, it has the leeway to experiment.

The role of stablecoins in this layout has been reinforced. From collateral to lending tools, they are no longer just a trading pair medium but truly a foundational financial infrastructure. This reminds me of the controversy over stablecoins in 2023, which has now become a key entry point for institutional participation. Cycles are like that—yesterday’s cannon fodder becomes today’s foundation.