Master Aave Lending: Supply, Borrow, Earn Interest Now.

Okay, so the biggest screw up I see? People jump in, supply a ton of ETH thinking they're gonna get rich quick on interest, but forget to check the health factor. Next thing you know, market dips, their collateral tanks, and boom-liquidation. Lost half their stack in one go. Happened to my buddy last year. Don't be that guy.

Right way? Start tiny. Like, 0.01 ETH or $50 USDC. Test the waters. Watch your positions like a hawk. And always, always enable collateral on what you supply before borrowing. That's your safety net.

What Aave Even Is, Quick and Dirty

Aave's basically a DeFi spot where you chuck in your crypto to earn interest, or use it as collateral to borrow other stuff. No banks. No KYC. Just smart contracts on Ethereum or other chains doing the heavy lifting. You supply USDC, get aUSDC back that grows over time. Borrow against ETH? Cool, but overcollateralize-put up $150 to grab $100.

In my experience, it's killer for passive income if you're HODLing stables. Rates float with supply/demand, so USDC might pay 3-5% APY right now, ETH higher but riskier. Why does this matter? Beats your bank account laughing.

Supplying Assets: Your First Move

1. Head to aave.com, hit "Launch App". Pick your network-Ethereum mainnet for starters, or Base/Polygon for cheap gas.
2. Connect wallet. MetaMask? Perfect. Ledger if you're paranoid like me.
3. Grab some asset. Say, USDT. Make sure it's in your wallet.
4. Click "Supply", pick USDT, enter amount-like 100. Hit "Approve USDT" first (gas ~$5-20 on ETH, pennies on L2s).
5. Then "Supply". Boom, you get aUSDT. That bad boy accrues interest automatically. Check your wallet-balance ticks up every block.

Pro tip: Enable "Use as collateral" right away if you might borrow. But watch liquidity-can't withdraw if everything's borrowed out.

Earning Interest Without Breaking a Sweat

• aTokens magic: Your supply balance grows continuously. No claiming rewards. Sleep easy.
• Rates? Variable mostly, 2-10% APY depending on asset. Stables steady, volatiles wild.
• I usually supply USDC or DAI. Low vol, decent yield. Last month, pulled 4.2% on $5k.

But here's the thing-rates crash when supply floods in. Saw ETH supply APY drop from 6% to 1% in a week once. Monitor via Aave dashboard. What's your play? Park idle cash, earn while you wait for dips.

Borrowing: Loop In Without Selling

So you've supplied ETH as collateral. Health factor sits pretty at 2.0+ (above 1 means safe). Now borrow.

Click "Borrow" tab. Pick USDC. Slider shows max-say LTV 75%, so $750 on $1k collateral. Enter 500. Choose variable rate (cheaper, ~3-7%) or stable (locked, higher ~5-9%). Confirm. Funds hit wallet instantly.

Interest accrues on borrow too. Pays suppliers. Don't ignore it-compounds fast.

Asset Pair	Typical LTV	Var Borrow APR	Liquidation Threshold
ETH → USDC	75%	4-6%	80%
USDC → ETH	74%	2-4%	78%
DAI → WBTC	70%	5-8%	75%

Numbers fluctuate-check live. Gas for borrow? ~$10-30 ETH, way less on Arbitrum.

Repaying: Don't Let It Snowball

1. Dashboard shows borrow balance + interest. Say you owe 520 USDC now.
2. Have USDC ready. "Repay", hit Max or partial. Approve if needed.
3. Confirm. Collateral unlocks as you pay down.

Partial repays? Smart for managing health factor. I repay 10% weekly on big positions. Keeps me golden.

Health Factor: Your Warning Light

Look, this is everything. Health factor = how safe your borrow is. Formula's roughly (collateral value * liquidation threshold) / borrow value. Above 2.0? Chill. 1.5-2? Yellow. Under 1? Liquidated-anyone can snatch your collateral at discount, you eat 5-10% penalty.

Market crashes ETH 20%? Your HF drops. Solution? Add more collateral or repay borrow. I set alerts on DeFiLlama or Zapper.

Sound familiar? Yeah, it's like margin calls but decentralized. Stay above 1.8, sleep at night.

Flash Loans: Wild Card for Pros

Okay, advanced but cool. Borrow millions, no collateral-as long as you repay in same transaction. Arbitrage? Borrow cheap ETH, swap high elsewhere, repay, pocket diff. Fees? 0.05% usually.

Don't touch unless you're coding. I tried once, botched gas, lost $200. Stick to basics first.

Common Screw Ups and Fixes

Gas fees kill noobs. ETH mainnet? $20+ per tx. Fix: Use Base or Polygon-gas ~0.0001 ETH equiv.

Wrong network? Supplied on Arbitrum, try withdraw on Ethereum. Nope. Double check chain.

Liquidation panic. HF dipping? Swap some borrowed asset to stable, repay. Or loop: Borrow more stables, repay volatile debt.

In my experience, slippage on big supplies. Do in chunks-$1k at a time.

Looping Strategy: Multiply Yields

Want more juice? Supply ETH. Borrow USDC against it (75% LTV). Supply that USDC. Borrow more ETH. Repeat 2-3x. Leveraged yield. But risky-vol amplifies losses.

1. Supply 1 ETH (~$3k).
2. Borrow max USDC (~$2.25k).
3. Supply USDC, enable collateral.
4. Borrow more ETH against it. Now 1.75 ETH supplied, earning double.
5. Monitor HF religiously. Crashes hurt double.

I loop small, 2x max. Pulled 12% effective APY last bull run. You game?

Multi Chain Game: Cheaper, Faster

Aave's not just ETH. Base? Gas under $0.01. Avalanche, Polygon-same. Rates similar, liquidity growing. Switch via app dropdown.

Pro move: Bridge assets cheap via official tools. Earn on Base USDC at 5%, zero stress.

Networks vary liquidity. ETH deepest, safest. L2s cheaper entry.

Risks? Yeah, They're Real

Smart contract hacks-rare, but Aave's audited to death. Still, not zero.

Oracle fails? Price feeds wrong, bad liquidations. Happened once, fixed quick.

Impermanent loss? Nah, not AMM. But vol kills leveraged plays.

Honestly, biggest risk is you-FOMO borrowing max, ignoring HF. Start with what you can lose.

Dashboard Deep Dive

After actions, dashboard's your HQ. Top: Supplies (aTokens balances). Middle: Borrows (owing + APR). Bottom: Health factor, borrow power left.

Hover assets for LTV, thresholds. Click "Details" for APYs live. I check daily-takes 30 secs.

Swap tab? Convert supplied/borrowed without withdrawing. Gas saver.

• Net worth: Total collateral minus debt.
• APY breakdown: Supply yield vs borrow cost.
• Alerts: Set for HF <1.2.

Scaling Up: My Routine

Once comfy, I supply $10k stables across chains. Borrow against BTC/ETH for leverage. Repay weekly from fiat ramps.

Taxes? Track everything-USDC in, aUSDC out, interest taxable. Use Koinly or whatever.

What's next? Stake AAVE token for governance, safety module yields. But that's later.

Withdrawals: Cash Out Easy

1. Dashboard, "Supply" tab, your asset. "Withdraw".
2. Amount. If collateral enabled and borrowed, limited to available liquidity.
3. Confirm. aTokens burn, underlying back to wallet. Interest included.

Stuck? Pool utilization high. Wait or switch asset.

Stablecoin Plays with GHO

Aave's GHO-borrow it cheap against collateral. Pegged USD, saves gas on ramps. Mint, use, repay. Rates low ~2% var.

I use for yield loops. Borrow GHO, supply elsewhere. Keeps it simple.

One catch: Peg wobbles sometimes. Watch 1-2% depegs.

Tools I Swear By

• Zapper.fi: Track all positions cross chain.
• DeFiLlama: APYs, TVL live.
• Dune Analytics: Custom HF dashboards.
• Wallet: MetaMask + Rabby for multi chain.

No fluff. These save hours.