Aave founder says DeFi could tap $50T via tokenization by 2050

Stani Kulechov, founder of the decentralized lending platform Aave, outlined on X on Sunday a view that decentralized finance could access as much as $50 trillion in tokenized “abundance assets” by 2050. He pointed to solar power as the largest share of that pool and framed the category as a new source of onchain collateral.

He noted that tokenization to date has centered on scarce assets such as U.S. Treasury bills, equities, commodities, private credit and real estate. In his view, bigger scale lies with assets that grow with production. Solar alone could account for $15 trillion to $30 trillion of the total by mid-century, he estimated. “Capital is hungry for new collateral, and the world is ready for a transformation that onchain lending can capture and accelerate,” he wrote.

Kulechov outlined a financing model in which a solar debt financier tokenizes a $100 million project and borrows $70 million against it. Proceeds would be redeployed into new builds, while onchain depositors gain exposure to diversified, lower-risk yields. “An investor might buy tokenized solar, hold for three years, sell at a profit, and immediately redeploy into new development,” he wrote, describing a shorter investment cycle.

He contrasted the approach with conventional infrastructure funding, where capital often remains tied up for long periods. “Traditional infrastructure capital locks up for decades. Tokenized assets allow continuous trading, meaning the same dollar can finance multiple projects over time,” he added, presenting token markets as a way to raise capital efficiency.

Beyond solar, he cited batteries for energy storage, robotics for labor, vertical farming and lab-grown food for nutrition, semiconductors for computation and 3D printing for materials as candidates for tokenization. “Abundance-backed products offer better returns, better risk characteristics, and better values alignment,” he wrote.

Tokenized real-world assets on public blockchains total nearly $25 billion, based on industry data, with most issuance in fixed income and other established instruments. Aave currently holds about $27 billion in total value locked in its lending markets, according to onchain tracking.

As we reported earlier, CoinShares projects U.S. Treasuries will steer growth in tokenized real-world assets in 2026, after a 229% rise in 2025 to $18.1 billion. The firm cites global demand for dollar yield and gains in onchain settlement efficiency. It notes that investors choose products backed by U.S. government debt when yields are available with limited extra risk.