The Aave community has voted in favor of the 'Aave Will Win' proposal, a landmark framework that redirects all revenue from Aave-branded products back to the DAO and consolidates economic rights under the AAVE token. This move marks the end of a governance dispute that began when swap fees were redirected away from the DAO treasury.
The proposal, deemed the most important in Aave's history by founder Stani Kulechov, 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 one asset and one model: the AAVE token. The vote resolves a controversy that exposed a deeper tension over whether Aave Labs or the DAO controlled the protocol's most valuable asset: its user-facing products and revenue.
The 'Aave Will Win' proposal decisively favors token holders, with protocol revenue supplemented by application-layer revenue from Aave Pro, Aave App, Horizon, and Aave Kit. The application layer is expected to generate significant revenue, with Aave App targeting mainstream users with a 'fintech-like experience' and a card launching later that will generate fees for the treasury.
The proposal takes a hard line against 'value leakage,' with service providers required to build exclusively for Aave and meet measurable goals. Governance process improvements are planned to reduce 'politics and friction.' On the technical side, Aave V4's reinvestment feature will turn idle float capital in lending pools into yield-generating positions, creating an additional revenue stream. New 'Spokes' will expand collateral options and address the demand side of DeFi liquidity.
The team plans to invest in agentic AI infrastructure for developers building on Aave. With roughly $25 billion in total value locked across multiple chains, Aave is the largest lending protocol in DeFi, generating $140 million in annual revenue. The stated target is to scale from $40 billion to $1 trillion, positioning Aave as a financial network that any fintech, bank, or asset manager can plug into.