Aave vs Compound

How Aave vs Compound compare on our ratings, lending protocol specs, funding, pros and cons.

Aave4.0/5

Feature	Aave Visit	Compound Visit
Ratings
Our score	4.0/5	4.0/5
User rating	No reviews yet	No reviews yet
Security & track record	3.5	4.5
Rates	3.5	4.0
Market depth	5.0	3.5
Ease of use	3.5	4.0
Decentralization	4.5	4.0
Specs
KYC required	No	No
Lending model	Pooled	Isolated markets
Chains	Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Other	Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base
Main collateral assets	USDC, USDT, WETH, wBTC, LINK, wstETH, cbBTC, GHO, AAVE, ETH-correlated assets	ETH, WBTC, USDC, USDT
Flash loans	Yes	No
Permissionless markets	No	No
Audited	Yes	Yes
Bug bounty	Yes	Yes
Governance token	AAVE	COMP
Isolated markets	Yes	Yes
Real-world-asset collateral	Yes	No
Own stablecoin	Yes	No
Rates	Variable	Variable
Company
Founded	2017	2017
Headquarters	Finland	—
Investors	Blockchain Capital, Framework Ventures, Standard Crypto	Dragonfly, Polychain Capital, a16z crypto
Strengths and weaknesses
Pros	$18.006B combined TVL in October 2026 Operates across 23 blockchain networks Non-custodial wallet-based access V3 includes Isolation Mode and Efficiency Mode	Audited by OpenZeppelin and ChainSecurity with a $1M bug bounty Processed $480B in all-time deposits and borrows since 2018 No KYC required to supply or borrow on standard markets Active on Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum
Cons	Variable borrowing rates can rise with market utilisation Liquidation can sell collateral after health-factor deterioration Smart contract and oracle risks remain Collateral depends on external bridges and asset issuers	Lacks an umbrella safety module to cover protocol-wide bad debt Borrow rates vary with base-asset pool utilization Does not support permissionless market creation by users Borrowing is restricted to only one designated base asset per pool
Best for	Multi-chain DeFi borrowers, Collateralised crypto lending, Stablecoin liquidity strategies	USDC and WETH borrowers, Suppliers avoiding rehypothecation risk, Users seeking yield on supported EVM networks

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