Aave has been going through a difficult period, and it shows both in the price and in how people are reacting to the decentralized finance (DeFi) project. At the time of writing, the token trades at $86, down 10% over the past 24 hours.
AAVE price faces immense pressure
In March 2025, the DeFi protocol’s token fell below the $100 level – a level that many traders watch for psychological causes, but which still tends to influence the overall investor sentiment.
Around the same time, the protocol has also seen some notable internal changes, including the departure of key contributors like BGD Labs and, more recently Chaos Labs.
When a project starts losing key teams while the market is already weak, it naturally creates a bit of unease. Investors don’t like uncertainty, especially in an environment where most altcoins are already struggling to hold steady. That combination has clearly had an impact on how people are positioning themselves around AAVE.
Exchange reserves are climbing again
One of the more telling signals in recent weeks has been the steady rise in Aave’s exchange reserves.
Since early February, the total amount of AAVE sitting on exchanges has increased from roughly 2.07 million to about 2.23 million tokens. A large share of that is on Binance, which now holds around 1.63 million AAVE, up from 1.57 million earlier.
On its own, that might not seem like a dramatic shift. But when zoomed out, the change becomes a lot more meaningful. For nearly a year—since April 2025—exchange reserves had been trending downward.
That typically suggests accumulation or at least a willingness to hold. Now, that trend has reversed, and reserves are climbing again, even moving above the 90-day moving average.
That kind of movement often points to a simple idea: more tokens are being sent to exchanges, and that usually happens when investors are preparing to sell.
It could either be traders booking profits or long-term holders choosing to decrease their exposure after a period of heightened uncertainty. In both cases, it adds to selling pressure.
What this means for AAVE going forward
The bigger picture here is a mix of weak sentiment, internal changes, and a market that isn’t friendly to altcoins right now. While none of these factors alone are very alarming, together they paint a more cautious outlook.
Rising exchange reserves don’t guarantee that a sell-off is coming, but they do suggest that the market is leaning in that direction. If sentiment improves or if Aave manages to rebuild confidence through development and clearer direction, that trend could easily reverse.
For now, though, the data suggests investors are staying a bit more defensive than they were a few months ago.
