The Aave community has voted in favor of the 'Aave Will Win' proposal, a framework that redirects all revenue from Aave-branded products back to the DAO, consolidating economic rights under the AAVE token. This move resolves a months-long dispute that began when swap fees were redirected away from the DAO treasury. The proposal, deemed the most important in Aave's history, approves a $25 million stablecoin grant and 5,000 AAVE token allocation to Aave Labs.
The Aave DAO, a community-run decision-making body, will now be responsible for funding Aave Labs' activities. The proposal aims to make Aave fully token-centric, with a single asset and model.
The vote puts an end to the controversy that arose in December when delegates discovered that swap-related fees were being diverted to an external recipient. The 'Aave Will Win' proposal decisively favors token holders, with protocol revenue, which reached $140 million in 2025, now being supplemented by application-layer revenue from various Aave products. The proposal also takes a hard line against 'value leakage,' ensuring that service providers build exclusively for Aave and prioritize token holders.
With this move, Aave aims to scale from $40 billion to $1 trillion, positioning itself as a financial network that any fintech, bank, or asset manager can plug into.