An Aave governance ARFC from LlamaRisk proposes winding down low-adoption reserves and entire V3 markets on Sonic, Scroll, zkSync, Metis, Soneium and Aptos. The scope covers dozens of assets, including 50 reserves and 21 matured Pendle principal tokens.

At first, that sounds negative. A major DeFi protocol is considering closing parts of its market footprint. In mature infrastructure, however, removing dead weight can be as important as launching new markets. Every reserve requires oracles, risk parameters, monitoring and liquidation paths. If an asset is barely used, it still creates operational load.

Aave is effectively auditing its product network for economic sense. If a market does not cover the cost and risk of supporting it, freezing or offboarding becomes rational. This is less about rejecting one specific chain and more about reducing total risk surface.

For users, the lesson is practical. DeFi should not be judged only by the number of chains or assets supported. Liquidity, revenue, oracle safety, borrower activity and the DAO's ability to retire inefficient components matter. Sometimes the clearest sign of protocol maturity is not expansion. It is discipline.