The Aave governance system has passed a landmark proposal, dubbed 'Aave Will Win', which marks a significant shift in the protocol's revenue distribution. The proposal, described by founder Stani Kulechov as 'the most important in Aave's history', redirects 100% of revenue from all Aave-branded products to the DAO, effectively consolidating economic rights under the AAVE token.
This move resolves a long-standing dispute that began when swap fees were redirected away from the DAO treasury. The proposal also includes a $25 million stablecoin grant and 5,000 AAVE token allocation to Aave Labs. As a result, the DAO will now be responsible for funding Aave Labs' activities.
The Aave Will Win proposal aims to make Aave fully token-centric, with a single asset and model. The vote has put an end to the controversy surrounding the integration of CoWSwap into Aave's interface, which had quietly shifted swap-related fees away from the community treasury.
The proposal's passage marks a decisive victory for token holders, with protocol revenue now supplemented by application-layer revenue from Aave Pro, Aave App, Horizon, and Aave Kit. The ambition lies in the application layer, with Aave App targeting mainstream users and generating fees for the treasury. The proposal takes a hard line against 'value leakage', ensuring that service providers build exclusively for Aave, with measurable goals and governance process improvements planned. On the technical side, Aave V4's reinvestment feature and new 'Spokes' expand collateral options and address the demand side of DeFi liquidity.
With roughly $25 billion in total value locked, Aave is the largest lending protocol in DeFi, and the $140 million annual revenue figure puts it alongside Uniswap and Lido as one of the few protocols generating nine-figure income.