Aave ETH liquidity thins as Justin Sun ‘moves billions like grocery shopping’

Aave has reserves of Ethereum, and they’re thinning fast. The culprit, according to Marc Zeller, a contributor on Aave, is Justin Sun. Why? Unpredictable outflows are straining the protocol’s stability with little regard for the broader impact—and there’s little anyone can do to stop it.

Over the past week, wallets associated with Sun on Arkham withdrew more than $646 million in Ether (ETH) from Aave, while HTX, where the Tron founder serves as an advisor, cashed out another $455 million.

Combined with other major exits, including a $115 million withdrawal by Abraxas Capital, the total drained from Aave now tops $1.7 billion. The sudden liquidity crunch sent borrowing rates spiking above 10%, forcing the protocol into an unexpected stress test and leaving contributors scrambling.

“I tried to ask him to warn us so we can coordinate with LPs… he did it once,” said Zeller in a Telegram chat. “He’s just unpredictable.”

Aave, the largest lending platform on Ethereum, now finds itself navigating a liquidity vacuum driven not by market panic, but by a single player’s unchecked withdrawals. The outsized influence of one actor, whether an individual or an institution, raises broader questions about DeFi’s resilience in the face of centralized behavior.

With validator exits also climbing across the Ethereum network, the episode hints at a deeper structural fragility brewing beneath the surface.

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Aave liquidity crunch meets Ethereum’s staking exodus

Zeller’s frustration isn’t just about Sun’s $646 million exit; it’s about the precedent it sets. Aave, designed to handle large transactions, relies on liquidity providers (LPs) to maintain equilibrium. When a whale like Sun withdraws without warning, it forces abrupt rebalancing, spiking borrowing costs and destabilizing the protocol for everyday users

The timing exacerbates the strain. Ethereum’s validator exit queue has ballooned to 625,000 ETH ($2.3 billion), the highest since 2023, as stakers rush to cash in on ETH’s 150% rally since April. Validator withdrawals now face a 10-day backlog, per validatorqueue.com, while new entrants queue up 359,500 ETH ($1.3 billion) in a six-day waiting line.

This isn’t panic; it’s profit-taking. But combined with Aave’s liquidity drain, it reveals an ecosystem under dual pressure: DeFi’s liquidity levers and Ethereum’s staking mechanics are both being tested by sudden, large-scale movements.

Institutional demand grows amid the chaos

Paradoxically, the same volatility drawing whales out of Aave is pulling institutions deeper into Ethereum staking. The SEC’s May clarification that staking doesn’t constitute a securities offering has catalyzed demand.

BlackRock has baked ETH staking into its products, while ventures like SharpLink Gaming and BitMine Immersion now tap ETH-based yield programs to bolster shareholder value. According to Dune Analytics dashboard, record 36.39 million ETH (29.4% of supply) is locked in staking, proof that regulatory clarity, not just price surges, drives adoption.

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