Aave vs Portal

Aave V3 is the third iteration of the Aave liquidity market protocol, introducing Portals for cross‑chain liquidity, High‑Efficiency (E‑Mode) lending and Isolation Mode markets to compartmentalise risk. The refactor cuts gas costs by up to 25 % and adds real‑time supply/borrow caps that can be tuned by AAVE token governance. V3 is live on Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Polygon, Metis and Base, collectively holding several billion dollars in deposits secured by the Safety Module.

Portal is the user interface for Wormhole, a cross‑chain messaging protocol secured by a 19‑guardian proof‑of‑authority network. It supports token transfers, NFT teleports and arbitrary message passing between more than 30 chains, including Solana, Ethereum and Aptos. A governance token airdrop was announced for Q3 2025 following the Guardian Lightpaper outlining a move to delegated staking.