Aave has found a new way to recruit borrowers: let them post big-name tech stocks as collateral.
Three out of every four borrowers using tokenized Magnificent 7 shares on Aave’s Base deployment are new to Aave on that network.
How the Equities Hub works
Aave launched its Equities Hub on September 25, 2026, as part of its V4 rollout on Base. Base is the Ethereum layer-2 network incubated by Coinbase.
Eligible users outside the US can deposit tokenized shares of the Magnificent 7 companies and borrow USDC against them.
The design is deliberately narrow. The tokenized equities can only be used as collateral, so nobody can borrow them. Cross-collateral borrowing between the stocks is switched off, meaning you cannot post one tokenized share to borrow another.
The hub operates as an isolated pool, and at launch USDC was the only asset available to borrow.
The numbers so far
As of October 18, 2026, users had deposited $9.57 million worth of tokenized Mag7 supply into the hub.
That figure represents 35.6% of the total tokenized supply of those shares, which stands at $26.9 million in total.
Against that collateral, borrowers have taken out $4.08 million in USDC.
The number of borrowing wallets grew from 8 to 144 by mid-October.
The loan-to-collateral ratio rose from 22.2% at launch to 42.9% by October 18.
Collateral factors range from 65% to 79% depending on the token. The aggregate collateral cap for the hub was set at approximately $29 million at launch.
Background: why tokenized stocks matter for DeFi
Tokenized equities let assets that originate in traditional markets plug into onchain credit. The tokenized shares are backed by actual stocks custodied at Alpaca Securities. Aave uses Chainlink for pricing data, synchronizing on-chain operations with traditional market hours by pausing trading over weekends and U.S. holidays.
The decision to restrict access to non-US users reflects the regulatory reality around tokenized securities.
What this means
The most important number here is not the dollar figure. It is the three-in-four share of new borrowers.
The rising loan-to-collateral ratio deserves attention. Moving from 22.2% to 42.9% shows confidence, but it also means borrowers have less cushion if share prices fall. Collateral factors topping out at 79% give some buffer before liquidation becomes likely.
With 35.6% of tokenized Mag7 supply already deposited, Aave’s growth in this hub is increasingly tied to how quickly the underlying tokenized shares themselves expand.
Potential expansion within this framework, including the introduction of additional equities or alternative assets like GHO, rests upon Aave governance.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.