Bitcoin found support near $60,000 on Friday after this week’s sell-off, but the sharpest move came from DeFi and Solana-related tokens rather than BTC itself. Aave’s native token AAVE rose 19% over the past 24 hours, making it one of the strongest large-cap gainers in the market rebound.
Interest around AAVE picked up after reports that crypto exchange Kraken is exploring a strategic investment tied to the lending protocol. The reported deal would value Aave at $385 million and give Kraken a 15% stake. Aave founder Stani Kulechov responded on X, rejecting the idea that Aave assets could be sold at a steep discount. He said the protocol’s revenue is currently running at an annualized $134 million, with all revenue flowing to the Aave DAO and ultimately benefiting AAVE holders under the recently adopted “Aave Will Win” framework.
Aavenomics 3.0 draws attention to token design changes
Kulechov also previewed “Aavenomics 3.0,” an upcoming redesign of the token model. One key element is an automated buyback mechanism. The market reaction was quick, and AAVE extended gains after the update circulated.
Solana and its ecosystem also outperformed on Friday, with SOL up nearly 10%. Recent strength on the network has been tied in part to rising activity in tokenized stocks, an area where Solana has captured most of the trading flow.
Tokenized stock volumes lift Solana-linked DeFi names
Data from RWA.xyz showed tokenized stock trading volume topped $2.5 billion through this week, about 10 times the level of a month ago. That gave Solana more than 80% market share in tokenized equity trading across blockchains. As activity increased, several Solana DeFi tokens linked to trading infrastructure moved higher.
JTO surged 30%. The project runs Solana’s largest liquid staking protocol, supports validators seeking to maximize rewards, and launched a new trading platform last month. Solana-based decentralized exchange tokens RAY and Meteora’s MET each gained about 7%, while lending and liquidity protocol Kamino Finance’s KMNO advanced 9%.