Aave Founder Proposes Revenue Sharing to Ease Community Tensions

In a bid to calm the waters amid a discussion between Aave Labs and the protocol’s DAO, founder Stani Kulechov has suggested a potential concession to AAVE token holders. He proposed that revenue generated outside the protocol could be shared with token holders, presenting the idea in a governance post as a way to ease tensions in the ongoing debate.

Aligning Interests Between Labs and Token Holders

Kulechov explained that, in response to recent discussions within the community, Aave Labs plans to reward token holders with revenue generated outside the protocol. He stressed that aligning the goals of the company and AAVE holders remains a top priority and noted that a detailed proposal outlining the structure of the revenue distribution will be presented soon.

The debate over profit sharing grew louder when a token holder questioned why swap fees from the protocol’s new CoW Swap-powered interface were no longer directed to the DAO treasury, as they had been under the previous Paraswap system. Analysis shared by the individual on the governance platform showed that these swap fees are now accumulating in an address outside DAO control.

Guiding Aave’s Future: Strategy and Implementation

While Aave Labs built the first version of the Aave protocol, its ongoing maintenance and governance are now largely handled by the Aave DAO, which makes collaboration between the two essential for guiding the protocol’s future. Kulechov’s post outlined the following:

• Both Aave Labs and the DAO need to align on a plan to grow the protocol, adding support for additional assets and lending options.
• Independent teams should be encouraged to build on the permissionless Aave Protocol, allowing innovation while the protocol benefits from increased usage and revenue.
• Discussions around branding and intellectual property were also raised, with Kulechov indicating that these matters would be resolved in response to calls for Aave Labs to hand over IP rights to the DAO.

Aave’s Record-Breaking Growth in 2025

Aave finished 2025 with a string of notable milestones, setting a new record for DeFi dominance. The protocol now holds 29% of total DeFi value locked (TVL), establishing itself as the largest DeFi platform and surpassing 16 major U.S. banks in scale. With TVL reaching approximately $34.4 billion, it has also generated around $88.27 million in annualized revenue.

The platform’s native token has also seen strong performance, climbing more than 7% in the past 24 hours and trading at $161.47 at the time of reporting. These figures reflect growing adoption and confidence in Aave’s ecosystem, showing the protocol’s continued leadership in decentralized finance.