Aave Review
49 audit reports and a stated governance delay
of 10
Aave publishes the deepest audit archive in this comparison — 49 reports from fifteen firms — and states a governance timelock of either one or seven days depending on proposal type. Its licence file states in its own words that it is not an open source licence.
No money changes hands. This is a non-commercial project: no advertising, no sponsored placements, and no affiliate or referral links. Links to the services below earn us nothing. Every overall score is the plain average of the criteria shown on the page, so you can check the arithmetic yourself — see our rating methodology and how the site is funded.
Licence
BUSL-1.1, change date 6 Mar 2027 to MIT; file states it is not open source
Audit reports
49, from 15 named firms
Timelock
One day or seven days, by proposal type
Liquidation bonus
Always above 100%; 105% means a 5% bonus
Parameter units
Basis points; 10000 equals 100%
Scores
Each criterion carries equal weight. The overall score is the average of these 5 scores — (4.0 + 4.0 + 6.0 + 9.0 + 10.0) ÷ 5 = 6.6.
Pros
- 49 audit reports published from fifteen firms including OpenZeppelin, Trail of Bits, Certora and Sigma Prime
- Most recent audits dated March 2026, so the archive is current
- Governance timelock stated as either one day or seven days depending on proposal type
- Liquidation bonus mechanics documented, always above 100%
Cons
- The LICENSE file states outright: the Business Source License is not an Open Source license
- Per-asset loan-to-value, liquidation threshold and reserve factor values are not published in the documentation
- Risk Admin and Pool Admin roles can adjust parameters, and Stewards hold delegated authority over some
The audit archive is the strongest here
Forty-nine reports sit in the repository, from OpenZeppelin, Trail of Bits, PeckShield, Certora, ABDK, Sigma Prime, MixBytes, Cantina, Sherlock and others, with the most recent dated March 2026 against v3.7. Depth and recency together are what make an audit archive meaningful, and no other protocol here matches both.
Governance with a stated delay
Aave states that depending on proposal type, a timelock of either one day or seven days applies before changes take effect. Risk Admin and Pool Admin roles adjust reserve parameters, and Stewards hold delegated responsibility over specific ones.
The licence says it plainly
Aave's LICENSE file contains the sentence that most of this category avoids: the Business Source License is not an Open Source license. It converts to MIT no later than 6 March 2027. Stating it in the file is more honest than the marketing language used elsewhere, but the licence is what it is.
How it compares
Fluid
Four audit firms, almost nothing else published
Compound
Timelock-controlled, with a lapsed licence date
Radiant Capital
72-hour timelock, no licence at all
Spark
Publishes the close factor that most protocols hide
Silo Finance
Liquidation fee fixed at deployment, forever
Euler
Governance limits enforced permanently in code
Kamino
Publishes what it charges, per market
Venus Protocol
The most precisely documented governance delays
Morpho
GPL-licensed with published liquidation curve
Sources
Scored from published primary sources rather than hands-on use. Every figure above comes from one of the pages below, on the date shown. Manufacturers change prices and specifications without notice — if something here no longer matches the source, tell us and we will correct it.
- 1.Aave — pool configurator parameters — checked
- 2.Aave v3 origin — LICENSE — checked
- 3.Aave — governance — checked
- 4.Aave v3 origin — audits archive — checked
Frequently asked questions
Is Aave open source?
Not currently. The LICENSE file is Business Source License 1.1 and states in its own text that it is not an Open Source license; it converts to MIT by 6 March 2027.
How long is Aave's governance timelock?
Aave states a delay of either one day or seven days before implementation, depending on the type of proposal.
Nothing here is financial advice. Editorial policy · How we score · How we're funded.