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 shift makes the DAO responsible for funding Aave Labs' activities, with a $25 million stablecoin grant and 5,000 AAVE token allocation approved.
The proposal resolves a dispute that began when swap fees were redirected away from the community treasury, and it marks a significant milestone in Aave's history. The Aave DAO, a governance system that manages the Aave lending protocol, has effectively acted as the community-run decision-making body for the protocol.
The 'Aave Will Win' proposal has passed with a landslide, and it outlines a master plan for the future, including making Aave fully token-centric, with one asset and one model: $AAVE. The vote has answered the question of whether Aave Labs or the DAO controls the protocol's most valuable asset, decisively in favor of token holders.
Protocol revenue, which reached $140 million in 2025, will now be supplemented by application-layer revenue from Aave Pro, Aave App, Horizon, and Aave Kit. The proposal takes a hard line against 'value leakage,' and service providers must build exclusively for Aave, with measurable goals and zero tolerance for relationship gating or products built for themselves at the expense of token holders. Technical improvements, including Aave V4's reinvestment feature and new 'Spokes,' will expand collateral options and address the demand side of DeFi liquidity.
Aave holds roughly $25 billion in total value locked across multiple chains, making it the largest lending protocol in DeFi, with a stated target of scaling from $40 billion to $1 trillion.