More of a marketplace than a coin, Aave began as ETHLend in 2017 and was later rebranded to the Finnish word for “ghost” to represent the “transparent and open infrastructure for decentralized finance.” Aave is a lending marketplace which allows holders to borrow or lend a large number of altcoins, which is what you call the many non-Bitcoin crypto currencies that have popped up over the last decade. The technical term for a marketplace like Aave is liquidity protocol, which means a place where lots of people contribute assets so that others may borrow. You’ll need to have another cryptocurrency in order to make your first deposit, but once your money is in Aave, you’ll earn interest and can set up loans.

Benefits

Need a loan to finance other investments? Deposits into Aave can serve as collateral. Users of these loans can switch between stable and variable interest rates depending on what’s best in a particular market, and can choose which of their own assets serve as collateral. Experienced programmers can also create flash loans, which don’t require collateral and are executed with extreme speed. Even if you just want to let your money make money, Aave often offers higher returns than most banks.