Aave: Its founder puts forward the idea of ​​revenue sharing to appease the community

Amid growing tensions between Aave Labs and the protocol's DAO, founder Stani Kulechov put forward the idea of ​​a potential concession for AAVE token holders. He suggested that revenues generated outside the protocol could be shared with them, presenting this proposal in a governance post as an avenue aimed at calming the ongoing debate.

Align interests between Labs and token holders

Stani Kulechov explained that in response to recent discussions within the community, Aave Labs is considering rewarding token holders through revenue generated outside of the protocol. He recalled that the alignment of objectives between the company and AAVE holders remains a priority, specifying that a detailed proposal on the structure of this redistribution will be presented soon.

The debate around profit sharing intensified after a token holder questioned why the swap fees of the new interface, powered by CoW Swap, were no longer returned to the DAO treasuryunlike the previous system based on Paraswap. An analysis published on the governance platform revealed that these fees are now accumulating on an address outside the direct control of the DAO.

Guiding the Future of Aave: Strategy and Implementation

If Aave Labs designed the first version of the protocol, its maintenance and governance today rely largely on the Aave DAO, making their cooperation essential to shape the future of the project. In his post, Stani Kulechov highlighted several key areas :

• Aave Labs and the DAO must agree on a common roadmap to drive growth of the protocol, including through the addition of new assets and lending solutions.
• Independent teams should be encouraged to develop freely on the Aave protocol, driving innovation while supporting adoption and revenue.
• Discussions were also opened regarding branding and intellectual property, with Kulechov indicating that these topics would be addressed in response to requests for a transfer of intellectual property rights from Aave Labs to the DAO.

Aave's record growth in 2025

Aave concluded 2025 with a series of remarkable performances, setting a new record for dominance in DeFi. The protocol now concentrates 29% of the total value locked in the sector, establishing itself as the largest DeFi platform and surpassing, in terms of scale, 16 major American banks. Its TVL reaches around $34.4 billion, while its annualized revenue is estimated at almost $88.27 million.

The protocol's native token also saw a strong performance, rising over 7% over the past 24 hours and trading around $161.47 at the time of writing. These figures illustrate the growing adoption and renewed trust in the Aave ecosystem, confirming its leading position within decentralized finance.