What is GHO, Aave's stablecoin?

GHO is the dollar-pegged stablecoin of Aave, the lending protocol. It is an ERC-20 token that originates on Ethereum and is created when users borrow it against crypto they have deposited. Aave launched GHO on Ethereum mainnet in July 2023, The Defiant reported.

How is GHO minted?

Aave's documentation says GHO is minted through a facilitator model. Facilitators are contract addresses approved by Aave governance to mint and burn GHO, and each one has a capacity limit called a bucket.

The main facilitator is the Aave V3 Ethereum market. You supply eligible collateral, then call the borrow function to receive newly minted GHO. You pay a borrow rate, which GHO Stewards controlled by Aave's Risk Council can adjust within limits governance has approved. A separate flash mint facilitator lets GHO be minted and repaid inside a single transaction.

A GHO loan works like any other Aave loan. If your health factor drops below 1, your position can be liquidated, and the docs say a liquidator can repay up to half the debt in one go, or all of it in some cases.

What is the GHO Stability Module?

The GHO Stability Module, or GSM, lets people convert between GHO and governance-approved tokens such as USDC and USDT at a set price. This gives traders a way to bring GHO back toward one dollar when it drifts. Each pairing has its own fee strategy, with fees sent to the Aave DAO treasury, plus an exposure cap and controls that can freeze conversions if an oracle shows a problem.

How does GHO savings work?

Holders can deposit GHO into the sGHO vault. Aave's docs say this earns a fixed rate with no cooldown period, so you can withdraw without waiting. The rate is set through governance and can change, so check the Aave app for the current figure. Savings like this carry smart contract risk and are not a bank deposit.

GHO also exists beyond Ethereum. As of November 2026, the docs list bridged GHO on Arbitrum, Base, Avalanche, Gnosis, Mantle, Monad, Plasma and XLayer, moved through Chainlink CCIP.

What is the difference between GHO and USDC?

The key difference is backing. Circle says USDC is backed by cash and cash-equivalent reserves, much of it in a government money market fund, and is redeemable one to one for dollars. GHO has no company holding dollars behind it. Each GHO is created against crypto collateral worth more than the loan, and its peg relies on collateral rules, interest rates and the stability module. That makes GHO closer to DAI than to USDC.