Institutional-grade DeFi is coming! Aave is expected to launch the institutional lending platform "Aave Pro" in July.

The founder of Aave mentioned in a previous online conference hosted by Blockworks that "licensed DeFi" will be the next trend driving adoption of the crypto space by traditional finance; while the founder of Gold Beech Capital also revealed details of Aave's new institutional product, Aave Pro, on Twitter.

Next Step: Institutional-Grade DeFi

Blockchain media Blockworks hosted an event on July 1 titled "The Next Step for Institutional-Grade DeFi," with speakers including:

• Aave founder Stani Kulechov
• Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov
• Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz

Stani Kulechov pointed out that before traditional financial institutions like banks can participate in anonymous lending in the DeFi space, there must be a permissioned version of DeFi, which would mean centralized financial institutions would have control over wallet address systems with KYC procedures. He stated:

DeFi has already posed a threat to financial giants, but their concerns lie in the lack of KYC procedures for lending protocols and automated market makers. We believe that establishing an address system with KYC procedures will reduce overall risk and make it easier to expand into traditional institutions.

Michael Novogratz also mentioned that Aave is collaborating with Fireblocks to explore the possibility of a "closed-loop platform" or monitoring on-chain activities to propel DeFi towards institutional-grade applications.

Aave Pro

Founder of Gold Beech Capital, Noah Goldberg, further revealed today, July 5, on Twitter that Aave will launch "Aave Pro" for institutional users in July in collaboration with Fireblocks.

He claimed this was a summary review received from the conference, emphasizing that Aave Pro, in the letter, aims to enable institutions and corporations to participate in high-yield DeFi and benefit from its transparency.

Key features of "Aave Pro" include:

• Adoption of Aave V2 smart contracts, adding a whitelist system and allowing only KYC-verified participants to join the Aave Pro pool
• Initially, Aave Pro liquidity pool will only offer Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC, and AAVE, as these are in high demand by institutions
• Aave Pro will operate independently from other liquidity pools such as Aave V2, Aave Polygon, etc.
• Participants in AvePro will be institutions, corporations, financial companies, etc., verified by Fireblocks through KYC

The letter emphasized that Aave Pro will still operate in a decentralized manner and be managed through Aave's community governance mechanism.

Aave and Compound are major DeFi lending protocols. Previously, Aave expanded to L2 and will support NFT collateral, while Compound developed a multi-chain market, launched "Compound Chain" now renamed "Gateway."

However, both share a similar view on driving institutional adoption. Previously, Compound also collaborated with Fireblocks to introduce a new product, Compound Treasury, designed for Neobanks, fintech startups, and other large USD holders.