HyperLend Proposes an Aave V3 Fork on Elysium — and Aave Is Still the Lending King at $16.9 Billion

HyperLend has asked the Aave DAO to approve a friendly fork of Aave V3 on the Elysium Layer 2 network, with a twist that puts its own token at the centre of the deal: every cent of HyperLend's share of fees from the new deployment would go to buying back HPL tokens on the open market. The proposal, submitted on November 6, 2026, is the freshest sign that DeFi's biggest lending brand is still the platform everyone wants to build on — even as the wider DeFi market shrinks under Bitcoin's slide.

What HyperLend is actually proposing

A "friendly fork" is a copy of Aave's battle-tested V3 lending code, deployed on a new chain with the DAO's blessing, rather than a hostile clone. HyperLend wants to deploy that code on Elysium, a Layer 2 network, and run a lending market there under its own brand. The headline term is the buyback: HyperLend's entire share of fees from the deployment would fund HPL market buybacks, connecting the token directly to the new market's activity.

Two things are missing from the proposal so far. It states no fee size, so it does not specify how much money would actually fund those purchases. And it is only a proposal — the Aave DAO has not voted on it yet. A friendly fork lives or dies on that vote, and on whether Elysium attracts enough borrowers and lenders to make the fees worth anything at all.

Aave still leads by a wide margin

Whatever the DAO decides, the leaderboard explains why builders keep coming back to Aave. DeFiLlama puts total DeFi TVL at $80.5 billion as of November 6, 2026, with Aave at $16.9 billion across 23 chains — the largest lending protocol by a clear distance. Morpho sits second at $11.0 billion. Lido, the liquid-staking leader, holds $21.7 billion, and stablecoins across DeFi total $291.6 billion, with $8.5 billion in 24-hour DEX volume.

• Aave: $16.9B TVL, 23 chains, up 4.4% in 24 hours and 6.2% over 7 days
• Morpho: $11.0B TVL, 45 chains
• Lido: $21.7B TVL in liquid staking
• Aave V4: $766.9M TVL, up 18.1% over 7 days — the fastest-growing corner of the Aave family
• Lending sector overall: $49.83B across 107 protocols, up 2.0% over 7 days, with Aave V3 alone holding $15.14B, about 30% of the sector

The context is a rough week: DeFi TVL fell 5.3% in 24 hours to $80.7 billion as Bitcoin slid and $1.1 billion in positions were liquidated, and our earlier report on that drop https://zimbuck.com/blogs/1510/DeFi-TVL-Drops-to-80-7-Billion-in-a-Day covers the damage in detail. Against that backdrop, Aave leading inflows while the sector shrank is the number that matters — money moved toward the safest, most liquid lending venue, not away from lending altogether.

Why friendly forks keep happening

Aave's code is open and proven, its risk parameters are battle-tested across billions of dollars, and its brand carries trust that a brand-new lending protocol cannot buy. A friendly fork lets a team launch on a new chain with all of that, while the DAO keeps a say in how the brand is used. For the host chain — Elysium in this case — landing an Aave fork is a shortcut to credible DeFi infrastructure on day one.

The buyback twist is the newer part of the playbook. Tying a deployment's fee share to token buybacks gives HPL holders a direct claim on the new market's success, and it gives HyperLend a story to tell its community. The risk is the same as with any buyback promise: if the market does not generate fees, there is nothing to buy back with, and the proposal's silence on fee size makes that impossible to judge today.

What to watch before the vote

The first question is whether the Aave DAO approves the deployment at all. The second is Elysium itself: a new Layer 2 needs users, liquidity and integrations before a lending market can generate meaningful fees. And the third is the market backdrop — if Bitcoin keeps sliding and TVL keeps falling, even the best-designed fork launches into a headwind. For readers new to the metric at the heart of this story, our guide to what TVL actually measures https://zimbuck.com/blogs/1151/What-Is-TVL-in-DeFi-What-Total-Value-Locked-Counts explains how to read these numbers without being misled by them.

FAQ

What is HyperLend proposing? A friendly fork of Aave V3 on the Elysium Layer 2, submitted to the Aave DAO on November 6, 2026, with HyperLend's entire share of fees from the deployment used to buy back HPL tokens.

What is a friendly fork? A deployment of Aave's open-source V3 code on a new chain, done with the Aave DAO's approval, rather than an unauthorised copy. The DAO keeps a say in how the brand and code are used.

How big is Aave compared with other lending protocols? Aave leads with $16.9 billion in TVL across 23 chains as of November 6, 2026. Morpho is second at $11.0 billion. Aave V3 alone holds about 30% of the $49.83 billion lending sector.

Has the Aave DAO approved the HyperLend fork? Not yet. It is a proposal at this stage, and the DAO has not voted on it.

Why did DeFi TVL fall this week? DeFi TVL fell 5.3% in 24 hours to $80.7 billion as Bitcoin slid and $1.1 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated. Aave still led inflows during the drop.

What to watch next

Watch the Aave DAO forum for the vote, watch Elysium for launch timelines and liquidity incentives, and watch Aave V4 — up 18.1% in a week — as the signal for where Aave's own growth is heading. The proposal itself was reported here: https://www.tradingview.com/news/coinmarketcal:426a808a1094b:0-aave-hyperlend-proposes-an-aave-v3-friendly-fork-on-elysium-06-nov-2026/ — and more discussion and analysis can be found on the Zimbuck News page at https://zimbuck.com/pages/zimbucknews and in the Zimbuck Market News group at https://zimbuck.com/groups/zimbuckmarketnews. Join the conversation on Zimbuck, the finance social platform for traders and investors, at https://zimbuck.com.

This article is market news and general information only. It is not financial advice. Always do your own research before making any investment decision.