For the first time, GHO's stability module out-earned borrowing interest. $438k in March, over 50% of total revenue.

From reserves sitting in Aave pools, not from GHO borrowers paying GHO borrow interest.
By April 2026 the gap widened: $787k from the GSM versus $249k from borrowers, out of $1.19M total monthly GHO revenue.
Most protocol stablecoins earn one way. Users borrow, pay interest, that interest is revenue. The problem is that revenue moves with the market cycle, good markets bring more borrowing, quiet markets bring less.
The GSM doesn't lean on GHO borrow demand the same way. Here's how it works:
🔸 Users deposit USDC or USDT0 into a GSM instance and receive GHO 1:1
🔸 Those stablecoins don't sit idle. They're deployed into Aave V3 pools as aTokens, earning the supply APY
🔸 That yield accrues to the Aave DAO treasury for as long as the reserves stay deployed
🔸 Users can swap back when they need to, and reserves stay productive for as long as they sit in the GSM
The key difference is what each stream depends on. Borrow revenue depends on @GHO borrow demand, outstanding debt, and rates.
GSM revenue depends on reserves staying deployed and the yield in Aave's pools, so it moves on a different driver than GHO borrow demand.
That's also where it scales. Each new GHO deployment can extend the reserve-yield model to another chain. The Plasma GSM, for example, was configured with a 45M USDT0 cap, which at 4% supply APY is roughly $1.8M annualized from a single reserve base.
As GHO reaches more chains, that base widens.
So revenue grows with how far GHO spreads, not just with how much leverage users want to take. GHO stops being a product that only earns when people are borrowing, and starts earning wherever its reserves are put to work.
Both revenue streams flow toward the DAO treasury. The "Aave Will Win" framework, passed in April 2026, routes protocol and product revenue there, and buybacks are the main way that value reaches the token when the program is active. Standard Chartered even initiated coverage in June 2026 with a $3,500 target by 2030, valuing @aave on cash flows the way you'd value a bank.
That kind of framing only works if the cash flows hold up, which is the part the GSM is quietly building.
It's worth putting that next to GHO's current size. GHO sits around $599M supply and ~$14M annualized revenue. MakerDAO ran a similar dual-stream model years ago with RWA vaults, but only reached it at several times this supply. GHO is earlier in that curve.
The number worth watching isn't supply on its own, it's the revenue behind that supply. In April, GSM revenue implied roughly 2.7% annualized yield on the backed portion of supply.
Supply growth is easy to point at. Revenue quality is the harder signal.
GSM revenue crossing $1M/month while supply stays above $500M is the line that would show this model is becoming durable, not just bigger.
h/t: @Token_Logic