Aave Labs Faces Community Uproar After Governance Vote Proceeds Without Proposal Author’s Consent

TLDR

• Aave Labs submitted a governance proposal to vote without notifying its author, triggering criticism from DAO members.
• Ernesto Boado publicly disavowed the proposal, stating it was submitted using his name without consent.
• The proposal seeks DAO control over Aave’s brand assets, including domains, GitHub, and social media accounts.
• Community concerns grew after recent revenue decisions, including fee redirection and low-return incentive programs.
• The dispute follows the SEC closing its four-year investigation into Aave, with no enforcement action taken.

Aave Labs is under scrutiny after it pushed a governance proposal to a DAO vote without informing the original proposal’s author. The proposal concerns control over Aave’s brand assets and was submitted before community discussions concluded.

Author Rejects Vote Submission as DAO Debates Brand Control

Aave Labs moved a critical brand ownership proposal to Snapshot, using the author’s name without notice. Ernesto Boado, co-founder of BGD Labs and the proposal’s author, publicly disavowed the submission. “This is not, in ethos, my proposal,” Boado stated on the governance forum. He said the company broke trust by submitting the proposal with his name during an ongoing discussion phase.

He added, “Aave Labs has unilaterally submitted my proposal to vote in a rush, with my name on it.” The proposal requests legal transfer of brand assets, including aave.com, GitHub, and social accounts, to the Aave DAO. Boado’s version outlines legal protections and anti-capture mechanisms for the DAO’s benefit. Community concerns escalated after Aave Labs integrated CowSwap over Paraswap, redirecting fee revenues away from the DAO.

Contributors also pointed to Horizon market results, which brought low returns despite major incentives. Through a post on X, Marc Zeller of ACI said the DAO had paid “four times” for current assets through the ICO, token dilution, service fees, and mining rewards. He stated that current control fails to reflect those contributions. He also criticized how Avara, Aave Labs’ parent, controls key communication channels.

Aave’s CEO Defends Action While Governance Conflict Deepens

Stani Kulechov, Aave’s founder, defended the decision, saying discussions had already taken place. “The discussion has been going over the past five days,” he said in a post. He claimed that submitting the proposal to Snapshot aligned with governance rules.

Kulechov also stated that other providers use the same process without backlash and said “people are tired of this discussion.” However, critics argued his defense ignored conflict of interest concerns due to his leadership role at Aave Labs. Duo Nine said Kulechov was “not acting in good faith anymore.”

Analyst Ignas linked the controversy to prior governance disputes at Uniswap. He said such tensions often emerge when teams operate both products and decentralized protocols. Critics claim the firm is extracting brand value built collectively by the DAO. As reported by Blockonomi, the accusation comes as the SEC previously concluded its four-year investigation into Aave without enforcement. The probe, launched in 2021, targeted whether Aave’s offerings violated U.S. securities laws or required registration.

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