The current state after market adjustments is indeed interesting—excluding liquidity staking platforms, AAVE has become the only DeFi protocol to surpass the $10 billion TVL mark. This is not luck. Years of continuous liquidity accumulation combined with a solid track record have evolved into a moat that competitors find difficult to replicate. Other protocols wanting to catch up will have to pay a price—whether in terms of incentive costs or user confidence, which remains a challenge.