Stani Kulechov, founder of decentralized lending platform Aave, says decentralized finance could expand into a new category of collateral by tokenizing what he calls “abundance assets” productive infrastructure such as solar energy, batteries and robotics.
In a post on X, Kulechov projected that these assets could represent a $50 trillion market by 2050, with solar alone accounting for $15 trillion to $30 trillion of that total.
“Capital is hungry for new collateral, and the world is ready for a transformation that onchain lending can capture and accelerate,”
What “abundance assets” means
Most tokenized real-world assets today are tied to traditional financial instruments. Data from RWA.xyz shows nearly $25 billion worth of assets have been brought onchain, primarily US Treasury bonds, stocks, commodities, private credit and real estate.
Kulechov distinguishes those as “scarce” assets, existing financial products whose supply is limited. By contrast, “abundance assets” refer to infrastructure and technologies that expand productive capacity over time, such as renewable energy, energy storage, robotics, vertical farming, lab-grown food, semiconductors and 3D printing.
His argument is that tokenization could channel capital directly into these sectors while also creating new collateral types for onchain lending markets.
How the model would work
Kulechov described a structure in which a $100 million solar project is tokenized, allowing developers to borrow $70 million against it and reinvest in additional projects. Onchain lenders would gain exposure to yield generated by underlying infrastructure rather than traditional financial assets.
He said tokenized infrastructure could be traded continuously, enabling investors to enter and exit positions rather than locking capital for decades, as is common in traditional infrastructure finance. An investor could purchase tokenized solar exposure, hold it for several years, sell at a profit and redeploy capital into new development.
Returns and DeFi positioning
Kulechov argued that abundance-backed products could offer stronger returns than scarce assets, which he described as facing narrowing margins.
Aave remains the largest DeFi protocol by total value locked, with roughly $27 billion in lending and borrowing activity, according to DefiLlama. The platform’s most used assets include Tether’s USDT, Ether and wrapped Ether.
Aave’s native token AAVE has declined 15.2% in 2026 to $125.98 and remains about 81% below its May 2021 all-time high of $661.70, based to CoinGecko.
Kulechov’s proposal would expand DeFi beyond financialized versions of existing assets and toward tokenized claims on infrastructure and industrial capacity, positioning onchain lending as a financing layer for long-term development projects.
Gunel Ismayilova
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