The Aave community has voted in favor of the 'Aave Will Win' proposal, a landmark decision that marks the end of a months-long governance dispute. The proposal, which founder Stani Kulechov described as the most important in Aave's history, establishes a framework that redirects 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 the lab's operations. 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 aims to make Aave fully token-centric, with a single asset and model.
The vote resolves a controversy that emerged in December when delegates discovered that swap-related fees had been quietly shifted 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 decision, Aave is poised to scale from $40 billion to $1 trillion, positioning itself as a financial network that any fintech, bank, or asset manager can plug into.