Aave Labs chief executive Stani Kulechov said decentralised finance could tap a $50 trillion market in “abundance assets” by 2050, positioning tokenised solar and energy infrastructure as a new class of onchain collateral.
Kulechov argued that while nearly $25 billion in real-world assets have already been tokenised, most are scarce assets such as US Treasuries, private credit and real estate, leaving significant untapped potential in renewable energy and advanced manufacturing.
“Capital is hungry for new collateral, and the world is ready for a transformation that onchain lending can capture and accelerate,”
Said Kulechov.
He estimated solar energy alone could account for $15 trillion to $30 trillion of the projected $50 trillion market, suggesting developers could tokenise a $100 million solar project, borrow $70 million against it and redeploy capital into new installations.
“Traditional infrastructure capital locks up for decades. Tokenised assets allow continuous trading, meaning the same dollar can finance multiple projects over time,”
Kulechov added, arguing that such structures could improve capital efficiency and returns.
Aave is currently the largest DeFi protocol by total value locked at $27 billion according to DeFiLlama, with assets such as Tether, Ether and wrapped Ether dominating lending markets.
Aave’s native token AAVE has fallen 15.2% so far in 2026 to around $126 and remains 81% below its May 2021 peak of $661.70, underscoring the broader crypto market downturn despite renewed interest in tokenised infrastructure.
At the time of reporting, Aave price was $125.15.