Aave Hands Lens to Mask Network, Doubles Down on DeFi Ambitions

Aave has handed stewardship of the Lens Protocol to Mask Network, marking a strategic shift that narrows Aave’s focus again to decentralized finance.

This will place the subsequent part of decentralized social improvement within the arms of a group extra tightly centered on consumer-facing execution.

The transition was confirmed this week by statements from Aave and Lens founder Stani Kulechov, in addition to from Mask Network.

Aave Keeps Advisory Role whereas giving Lens App Development to Mask Network

Kulechov said Aave’s function in Lens will now be restricted to technical advisory help, describing the transfer as a refocus fairly than a retreat.

He defined that Aave initially expanded past onchain monetary primitives to construct social primitives that customers may personal, ensuing within the creation of Lens.

Over the years, we have now constructed among the most necessary onchain monetary primitives. We later expanded that ambition to social primitives that customers actually personal.

We constructed the Lens Protocol and its underlying onchain rails, together with state-of-the-art decentralized information storage… https://t.co/g0zLIUlaBh

— Stani.eth (@StaniKulechov) January 20, 2026

The authentic purpose, he stated, was to create impartial social infrastructure that builders may rely on to construct consumer-grade functions able to reaching mainstream customers.

With that basis now in place, stewardship is shifting to Mask Network, which is able to lead improvement on the software and product layer whereas Aave returns to its core experience in DeFi.

Both Aave and Lens emphasised that the transfer isn’t an acquisition, sale, or exit. There was no indication of a switch of protocol possession, mental property, treasuries, or governance management.

Lens’ core elements, together with its onchain social graph, profiles, follows, and sensible contracts, will stay open-source and permissionless.

Aave stated it can proceed to present enter on protocol-level choices however will not lead product improvement or function social functions immediately.

Mask Network, a Web3 firm identified for integrating blockchain options into social and messaging platforms, will now assume duty for consumer-facing execution.

This contains product roadmap choices, consumer expertise design, and day-to-day operational management for social functions constructed on Lens, corresponding to Orb.

In an announcement announcing the transition, Lens stated the ecosystem’s subsequent part requires much less protocol experimentation and extra focus on unified social experiences that may function at scale and meet consumer expectations.

Lens was launched by Aave in 2022 as a Web3-native social protocol designed to give customers possession over their social identities and content material by onchain profiles and NFTs.

From the outset, it was positioned as infrastructure fairly than a standalone social community.

Lens Enters Its Next Chapter as Decentralized Social Gains Momentum

Since launch, Lens has grown into one of the vital broadly used decentralized social protocols. Early builder adoption was fast, with greater than 50 tasks constructed on Lens shortly after launch.

By early 2023, the protocol had surpassed 100,000 minted profiles and supported greater than 120 functions.

Lens later migrated to Polygon mainnet, rolled out V2 and V3 upgrades, and launched Lens Chain, a purpose-built community powered by ZKsync and Avail, aimed toward bettering scalability, velocity, and monetization.

Lens makes use of GHO as fuel, enabling near-instant, low-cost transactions, and contains decentralized storage by Grove and options like Family Accounts.

The handover to Mask Network comes as decentralized social regains consideration throughout the crypto trade.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said he plans to spend extra time on decentralized social platforms in 2026, arguing that higher mass communication instruments are wanted and that decentralization enables competition by permitting a number of purchasers to construct on shared information layers.

In 2026, I plan to be totally again to decentralized social.

If we would like a greater society, we want higher mass communication instruments. We want mass communication instruments that floor the most effective data and arguments and assist individuals discover factors of settlement. We want mass communication… https://t.co/ye249HsojJ

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 21, 2026

Mask Network founder Suji Yan described the transition as aligned with the cypherpunk values on the coronary heart of crypto, saying decentralized social ought to be a part of on a regular basis life fairly than restricted to monetary merchandise.