Aave Community Pushes Back on Brand Control Proposal

The Aave DAO and community recently voted against a proposal to transfer brand ownership from Aave Labs to the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governing the leading DeFi protocol. Prominent leaders like Aave Labs founder and CEO Stani and Marc Zeller, founder of the Aavechan Initiative, commented on the outcome, noting that voting achieved a record turnout.

What Did Aave Users Vote Against?

According to on-chain data, Coinspeaker retrieved from Snapshot, the “[ARFC] $AAVE token alignment. Phase 1 – Ownership” proposal closed on December 25. The Christmas vote saw a record 1.8 million AAVE users participate. 994,800 AAVE (55.29%) voted “NAY”, 741,600 AAVE (41.21%) chose to abstain, and only 63,000 (3.5%) voted in favor of the proposal.

“[ARFC] $AAVE token alignment. Phase 1 – Ownership” proposal | Source: Snapshot

Many investors criticized the proposal for being made “in a rush” during ongoing discussions about Aave Labs’ actions and communication strategy, close to popular international holidays. This governance dispute has now consolidated as one of the most significant for a DeFi protocol, offering long-term lessons and setting relevant precedents for DAO voting going forward.

Notably, the proposal stemmed from escalating tensions over revenue distribution and control of AAVE $156.4 24h volatility: 2.8% Market cap: $2.38 B Vol. 24h: $321.28 M off-chain assets. The controversy ignited earlier in December when governance delegates discovered that Aave Labs’ integration of CoW Swap into the official app.aave.com frontend had redirected swap fees (estimated at up to $10 million annually) from the DAO treasury to a wallet controlled by Aave Labs.

Previously, the ParaSwap integration shared such revenues with the DAO, fueling accusations of “stealth privatization” and misalignment between the private development entity and token holders.

Aave-Related Leaderships Comment on Recent DAO Record Vote

As the vote wrapped up, Aave Labs founder and CEO Stani Kulechov commented on it on X. He said it was “a productive discussion that’s essential for the long-term health of Aave.” In the post, Stani pledged commitment to making the economic alignment between Aave Labs and $AAVE token holders clearer.

Additionally, he expanded on his recently disclosed $15 million AAVE purchase, as Coinspeaker reported pre-holidays. He explained the amount was not used for this recent vote. “This is my life’s work,” Stani said, “I am putting my own capital behind my conviction.”

Stani was the leader behind this proposal and a “YES” advocate.

Aavechan Initiative founder Marc “Billy” Zeller was one of the leading advocates for “ABSTAIN” votes in public discussions. He suggested that token holders abstain because the conditions were not ideal for making such an essential decision while discussions were still ongoing. He pointed out “a compressed timeline, a holiday period, and a debate that was still actively evolving.”

Yet, in an X article published just a few minutes before Stani’s post above, Zeller highlighted the “massive” turnout of 1.8 million AAVE used by voters, claiming “DeFi will win.”

Another prominent figure who commented on this governance proposal was Wintermute’s co-founder and CEO, Evgeny Gaevoy, a disclosed AAVE investor. Gaevoy highlighted “a clear expectation mismatch between AAVE Labs and a significant number of AAVE token holders” in many areas.

Also, he disagreed with the forum proposal “as it stands now,” explaining it requires further elaboration to become feasible. Therefore, Wintermute and Evgeny Gaevoy voted and advocated for “NO,” the winning outcome.

Interestingly, on the same day of this reported proposal being refused, another relevant Ethereum DeFi protocol, Uniswap, approved a long-awaited governance proposal. On Dec. 25, the DAO voted in favor of the UNIfication overhaul, approving 100 million UNI Burn and activating the fee switch.

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