Aave (AAVE) is a decentralised lending protocol where people can lend crypto to earn interest or borrow against their holdings without a bank or broker. It began in 2017 as ETHLend, was renamed Aave in 2018, and is led by founder Stani Kulechov. Interest rates adjust automatically based on supply and demand, and loans are secured by overcollateralised deposits managed by smart contracts. Aave is one of the largest DeFi platforms and runs on Ethereum and several other networks. AAVE is the governance token, which lets holders vote on protocol upgrades and risk settings, and it can be staked to help protect the protocol.