The Aave community has voted in favor of the 'Aave Will Win' proposal, which marks a significant milestone in the protocol's history. According to founder Stani Kulechov, this proposal is the most important in Aave's history and will have far-reaching implications for the protocol's future. The proposal redirects 100% of revenue from all Aave-branded products back to the DAO, effectively consolidating economic rights under a single asset - the AAVE token.
As a result, the DAO will now be responsible for funding Aave Labs' activities, with a $25 million stablecoin grant and 5,000 AAVE token allocation approved to support Aave Labs. The Aave DAO, a community-run decision-making body, will oversee the protocol's development, including upgrades, fees, and treasury use.
The 'Aave Will Win' proposal resolves a dispute that began in December when delegates discovered that swap fees had been quietly redirected away from the community treasury. The proposal decisively favors token holders, ensuring that protocol revenue, which reached $140 million in 2025, will be supplemented by application-layer revenue from Aave Pro, Aave App, Horizon, and Aave Kit. The application layer is expected to drive growth, with Aave App targeting mainstream users and generating fees for the treasury. The proposal also takes a hard line against 'value leakage,' ensuring that service providers build exclusively for Aave and prioritize token holders' interests.
With this proposal, Aave is poised to become a fully token-centric protocol, with a single asset and a single model. The team plans to invest in agentic AI infrastructure for developers building on Aave and expand collateral options to address the demand side of DeFi liquidity. As the largest lending protocol in DeFi, with roughly $25 billion in total value locked, Aave is well-positioned for growth, with a target of scaling from $40 billion to $1 trillion.