Aave Labs is taking a major step beyond institutional DeFi by acquiring San Francisco-based Stable Finance, a young startup focused on making onchain yield accessible to everyday users.
The move signals Aave’s intent to bring decentralized lending into mainstream mobile banking experiences.
Stable Finance, founded in 2023 by Mario Baxter Cabrera, built a mobile platform where users could move funds seamlessly from bank accounts, credit cards, or crypto wallets to earn returns on stablecoins through decentralized markets. With the acquisition, Cabrera and his engineering team will now join Aave Labs to integrate those consumer-focused capabilities into Aave’s growing ecosystem. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Aave Looks Beyond Institutions
Aave, one of the largest DeFi protocols with more than $37 billion locked in smart contracts according to DefiLlama, has recently been building new infrastructure aimed at financial institutions. It launched “Horizon,” a tokenized asset marketplace, and partnered with Maple Finance to expand access to yield-bearing stablecoins.
However, this latest move reflects a broader ambition – serving both large-scale institutions and retail users simultaneously. “Onchain finance should feel as natural as opening a bank app,” Aave founder Stani Kulechov has said, emphasizing that integrating consumer interfaces is key to mass adoption.
Today, Aave Labs is announcing its acquisition of @GetStableApp.
The future of finance is onchain, and this acquisition reinforces Aave Labs' commitment to turning onchain finance into everyday finance. pic.twitter.com/1FgsEv7URP
— Aave (@aave) October 23, 2025
DeFi Platforms Race to Simplify Yield
Aave’s acquisition comes at a time when competition around onchain yield is intensifying. Coinbase and Crypto.com have each rolled out integrations with the DeFi protocol Morpho, allowing customers to earn higher returns by lending stablecoins such as USDC or borrowing against collateral. Coinbase users, for example, can now access yields exceeding 10%, a significant jump from traditional savings or centralized reward programs.
These moves reveal a growing appetite for decentralized yield solutions that operate independently of traditional financial intermediaries. They also highlight a shift among exchanges and protocols toward offering hybrid models – simple enough for retail investors yet powered by decentralized mechanics under the hood.
The Stablecoin Regulatory Tension
While innovation accelerates, regulators remain divided on how to treat yield-generating stablecoin products. The GENIUS Act, enacted earlier this year, formally outlawed “yield-bearing stablecoins” but left loopholes for decentralized lending and liquidity markets. As a result, companies can still offer yield indirectly through DeFi platforms without violating the law’s language.
This grey zone has triggered friction between banks and crypto firms. U.S. banks argue that such products could drain liquidity from the traditional deposit system, threatening financial stability. Crypto advocates counter that stablecoins are simply offering the efficiency traditional finance has failed to deliver. Coinbase, in a blog post published in September, accused the banking sector of hypocrisy, pointing out that the same institutions “warning of systemic risk” profit massively from outdated payment infrastructures.
A New Consumer Era for Aave
By absorbing Stable Finance, Aave gains not just technology but a user experience designed from the ground up for everyday savers – something DeFi protocols have long lacked. It also positions the company to respond to rising demand for mobile-first, compliant DeFi experiences that bridge fiat and crypto economies.
If Aave succeeds in merging its institutional backbone with consumer usability, it could set a precedent for the next generation of onchain finance – one where decentralized yield, compliance, and mainstream adoption coexist in a single ecosystem.
