A months-long governance dispute within the Aave community has come to an end with the approval of the Aave Will Win proposal, a landmark decision that grants AAVE token holders full control over protocol revenue. The proposal, deemed the most significant in Aave's history by founder Stani Kulechov, establishes a framework that channels 100% of revenue from all Aave-branded products back to the DAO, consolidating economic rights under 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, manages the Aave lending protocol, enabling token holders to vote on key decisions such as upgrades, fees, and treasury use. The Aave Will Win proposal resolves a controversy that emerged in December when delegates discovered that swap-related 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 poised to drive growth, with Aave App targeting mainstream users with a fintech-like experience, including $1 million account protection per user and a card that generates fees for the treasury. The proposal also takes a strong stance against value leakage, requiring service providers to build exclusively for Aave and adhere to measurable goals.
Governance process improvements are planned to reduce friction and politics. On the technical front, 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, while the team plans to invest in agentic AI infrastructure for developers building on Aave.
With approximately $25 billion in total value locked across multiple chains, Aave is the largest lending protocol in DeFi, generating $140 million in annual revenue. Kulechov's 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.