Grayscale: Aave price could rise to $175 within a year

Grayscale Research states that Aave is currently undervalued and sees room for a significant price increase. Based on an expected revenue of $60 million in 2026 and a price-to-earnings ratio of 20x to 25x, similar to fintech companies, Grayscale estimates AAVE’s current fair value at $80 to $100. If regulation around tokenised assets provides clarity more quickly, the price could even rise to around $175 within a year.

Aave is available at OKX and Bybit.

Aave scores favourably compared with traditional financials

Grayscale compares Aave’s valuation with well-known names from the traditional financial world. Based on the trailing price-to-earnings ratio, Aave stands at 16.2, which is lower than, for example, Nubank (19.0), Capital One (33.5), Upstart (37.5), and SoFi (39.2). Only large banks such as JPMorgan (15.4), HSBC (15.2), and Bank of America (13.8) record a lower ratio.

That places Aave firmly in the middle segment of the financial sector when looking purely at earnings multiples. Grayscale uses this as an argument to state that the protocol is not expensive compared with similar companies, especially when you take into account the growth potential that DeFi lending can offer once there is more regulatory clarity.

Aave, Uniswap and Sky in a separate category for Grayscale

Grayscale categorises cryptoassets into different categories. According to the research firm, AAVE, UNI and SKY fall under the more cashflow-driven assets. That is a different approach from Bitcoin, which Grayscale regards more as a kind of digital commodity. Due to that cashflow focus, a comparison with fintech companies is therefore logical and justified according to Grayscale.

The reasoning is simple: if tokenised assets flow into DeFi loans on a large scale and regulators give the green light for that, the revenue of protocols such as Aave will grow significantly. Grayscale sees that as the main catalyst for a price rise towards $175. Whether that regulation comes quickly enough remains, of course, the big question. By comparison: Bitcoin currently stands at $64K, with a loss of 0.7% in the past 24 hours.