# What is Aave V4? Hub, Spoke and When to Skip It > Decentralized Finance Publication (decentralized-finance.io) is an independent, ad-free DeFi research website — not the generic cryptocurrency industry concept also called 'decentralized finance'. **Publisher:** Decentralized Finance Publication (https://decentralized-finance.io) **Author:** Kaiser Khan **Reviewed by:** Kaiser Khan, Editor in Chief **Category:** Top DeFi Protocols **Updated:** August 27, 2026 **Trust:** Independent, ad-free editorial research. No display advertisements, no paid protocol coverage, no affiliate-driven rankings. ## Summary Use Aave to supply a listed asset for a variable rate, or to borrow against collateral while health factor stays above 1.0. V4 is Hub & Spoke: you transact on a Spoke; the Hub holds the liquidity. Bookmark app.aave.com for V3 markets and pro.aave.com for Aave Pro / V4 — do not Google the URL. Skip Aave if you need deposit insurance, a guaranteed rate, or you cannot name which Spoke you are in. Educational research, not financial advice. ## Should you use Aave? Yes — as the default multi-chain place to supply blue-chip crypto or borrow against it, if you can watch a health factor and you can name the front end you opened. Aave is a pool, not a bank: there is no deposit insurance, and variable rates can spike when utilisation is high. Start with supply-only on a Spoke (or V3 market) you can explain. Aave V4 went live on Ethereum on 30 March 2026. It does not automatically retire V3. If you already understand a V3 eMode loop, skipping a rushed migration is a valid choice. If you are new, do not start by chasing a V4 screenshot APY. DeFiLlama snapshot 2026-08-27: about $17.6 billion TVL for this listing. That is lockup, not a safety rating — re-check the live figure before you size anything. ## What is Aave V4 Hub and Spoke? V3 is a market-per-pool design: each listed asset on each deployment has its own reserve. V4 splits the job. The Liquidity Hub is the accounting and liquidity source. It issues each Spoke a credit line (how much it may borrow from the Hub) and a debit line (how much it may supply into the Hub). You do not ‘use the Hub’ in the UI — you transact on a Spoke, which routes supply and debt to and from the Hub. That is not the same as ‘a position on Base draws Ethereum mainnet cash’. Official docs describe Hub & Spoke as modular markets sharing Hub accounting so governance can add or remove Spokes without migrating the whole pool. Treat any cross-chain liquidity claim as something to verify on the Spoke page and in the docs, not as a slogan. Borrow rates still follow a utilisation curve. On top, V4 can add a user risk premium: extra borrow cost weighted by the quality of the collateral covering your debt. If you learned ‘everyone pays the same asset rate’, that sentence is now incomplete. ## How do V4 liquidations differ from V3? Health factor is still eligible collateral value over debt. Below 1.0, liquidation can start. V3 used a close factor — liquidators often took a fixed fraction of the position. V4 instead aims at a target health factor set on the Spoke: the liquidator repays only enough to restore that target, which is meant to stop over-liquidation. The liquidation bonus can scale with how sick the position is (lower HF, higher bonus). Dust rule from the official V4 docs: if leftover debt or collateral would sit under $1,000, the liquidator must clear the position. Do not size a borrow so small that a single liquidation is forced to wipe you because of dust, and do not assume a V3 ‘50% close’ still applies. ## Aave vs Morpho vs Compound vs Resupply — which should you use? Start on Aave for listed markets and a long public track record — pick V3 or V4 deliberately. Use Morpho when a named curator vault is the product you want. Use Compound V3 for a simple single-base Comet. Use Resupply only if collateral already sits in Curve Lend or Fraxlend and you understand that stack. ## Which Aave risks actually bite? Liquidation, oracle prints, utilisation-driven rate spikes, and — on V4 — picking the wrong Spoke or ignoring user risk premium bite more often than a core-contract exploit. Isolation-mode listings, GHO, and curator-like Spoke parameters add risk on top of blue-chip supply. We have not deposited for you. ## Where is the official Aave app? V3 interface we name: app.aave.com. V4 / Aave Pro interface we name: pro.aave.com. Type them or use a bookmark you made yourself. Do not click Google Ads, Discord DMs, or X replies. You need a self-custody wallet and gas on the network you pick. How-to click paths live on the Aave supply guide. This page is the decision: whether Aave is the right pool, and which version you meant. ## Frequently Asked Questions - What is Aave? A non-custodial lending protocol: supply to earn a variable rate or borrow against collateral. It is not a bank, not insured, and not a fixed-rate product. Rates move with utilisation. V4 adds Hub & Spoke accounting on top of that job. - What is Aave V4 Hub and Spoke? The Hub holds liquidity and issues credit/debit lines. You interact with a Spoke, which has its own risk parameters and oracles. Adding a Spoke is not the same as migrating every V3 pool. - Should I migrate from V3 to V4? Only if you can name the Spoke, the oracle, and why your current V3 position is worse. Skip a migration you cannot reverse in a hurry. This page does not recommend migrating. - What is health factor on V4? Still collateral versus debt. Below 1.0, liquidation can start. V4 liquidators target a Spoke-level health factor instead of V3’s close factor, and the bonus can vary. Watch it if you borrow. - Is Aave safer than Morpho? Aave’s listed pools are more battle-tested; Morpho adds curator and isolated-market risk. Neither is insured. Pick the risk you can name, not the higher screenshot APY. - Does this page recommend depositing? No. Educational research only. We do not recommend borrowing, supplying, or buying AAVE. Verify live parameters on the app and DeFiLlama. ## Sources - [Aave V3 app](https://app.aave.com): Official V3 interface — bookmark it - [Aave Pro / V4](https://pro.aave.com): Official V4 / Pro interface — bookmark it - [Aave V4 docs](https://aave.com/docs/aave-v4): Hub, Spoke, liquidations (primary source) - [Aave on DeFiLlama](https://defillama.com/protocol/aave): Live TVL — methodology differs from protocol deposits --- Canonical: https://decentralized-finance.io/article/aave/ Markdown: https://decentralized-finance.io/article/aave.md AI text endpoint: https://decentralized-finance.io/ai/protocols/aave.txt