The protracted governance battle that commenced when Aave Labs diverted swap fees from the DAO treasury has come to an end, with the community voting in favor of the proposal. The 'Aave Will Win' proposal, deemed 'the most important proposal in Aave's history' by founder Stani Kulechov, has been approved, establishing a framework that channels 100% of revenue from all Aave-branded products back to the DAO and consolidates economic rights under the AAVE token. This shift entrusts the DAO with the responsibility of funding Aave Labs' activities, with the approved proposal also allocating a $25 million stablecoin grant and 5,000 AAVE tokens to Aave Labs. Aave's decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) serves as the community-driven decision-making entity for the protocol, enabling token holders to vote on key decisions such as upgrades, fees, and treasury utilization.
The 'Aave Will Win' proposal has been hailed as a decisive victory for token holders, providing a clear direction for the protocol's future. The proposal resolves a controversy that surfaced in December when delegates discovered that the integration of CoWSwap into Aave's interface had discreetly redirected swap-related fees away from the community treasury. This incident exposed underlying tensions regarding control of the protocol's most valuable assets, namely its user-facing products and the revenue they generate. The 'Aave Will Win' proposal unequivocally resolves this issue in favor of token holders, with protocol revenue, which reached $140 million in 2025 and is anticipated to match that figure in 2026, now being supplemented by application-layer revenue from Aave Pro, Aave App, Horizon, and Aave Kit.
Swaps on Aave.com and Aave Pro are already generating an additional $10 to $20 million in revenue beyond existing protocol fees. The application layer is a key area of focus, with Aave App aiming to provide a 'fintech-like experience' for mainstream users, featuring $1 million account protection per user and a card that will be launched later, generating fees for the treasury. The proposal adopts a stringent stance against 'value leakage,' the issue that triggered the December dispute, mandating that service providers build exclusively for Aave, with zero tolerance for relationship gating or products built at the expense of token holders.
Service providers will be required to have measurable goals, and governance process improvements are planned to reduce 'politics and friction.' On the technical front, Aave V4's reinvestment feature will convert idle float capital in lending pools into yield-generating positions, creating an additional revenue stream that did not exist in V3. New 'Spokes' will expand collateral options and address the demand side of DeFi liquidity, while the team also 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, and its $140 million annual revenue figure positions it alongside Uniswap and Lido as one of the few protocols generating nine-figure income. Kulechov's 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,' rather than a bank.