DeFi token AAVE saw its price appreciate by 16 percent over the past 24 hours, trading around $96 as of Friday. The lending platform token made a spectacular recovery from $71 on Wednesday, even though the wider crypto market continues to reel under sell-off pressure.
AAVE runs against the selling current
AAVE has jumped as much as 32.4 percent over the past week, indicating why it’s often considered the top DeFi asset, and also a leading indicator for the rest of the DeFi tokens.
On-chain data shows that AAVE whale transactions – valued at $100,000 or more – jumped from an average of 40 to around 105 between Tuesday and Thursday. This was also the heaviest large-holder activity of the month.
Token usage moved in tandem. On Thursday, AAVE active addresses surged to 2,804 – well about the average of 900 – and the busiest day over the past month. The bullish impulse can be attributed to multiple institutional catalysts.
For instance, on Wednesday, banking giant Standard Chartered predicted that AAVE could surge to $319 by 2028 due to a rapid rise in DeFi tokenization expansion.
Similarly, crypto-native asset management firm Grayscale shared their own AAVE target. On June 16, the company forecasted that AAVE’s fair value is between $80 to $100, a price range that the token is currently trading within.
Some analysts are also pointing toward an unconfirmed report of crypto exchange Kraken getting a stake in Aave. However, this was disputed by the protocol’s founder. Regardless, the token’s on-chain footprint shows real utility.
Looking back, AAVE has come a long way from the KelpDAO exploit that occurred in April. The protocol exploit led to a theft of 300,000 ETH, with AAVE token dropping by 60 percent following the hack.
Next target $120?
As AAVE trades slightly under the psychologically important $100 price level, analysts are confident that it’s only a matter of time before the token races past the number.
In an X post, crypto trader Celal Kucuker stated that if AAVE manages to close its weekly candle above $90, then its next target will be $120. However, data from DefiLlama shows that Aave’s total value locked is yet to make recovery.
As of Friday, the protocol’s TVL is barely above $12 billion. In comparison, the metric was as high as $45 in October 2025, indicating that a significant chunk of assets have left the protocol amid weakening confidence in digital asset’s short-term outlook.
