The Aave community has voted in favor of the 'Aave Will Win' proposal, a landmark decision that redirects 100% of revenue from all Aave-branded products back to the DAO, effectively consolidating economic rights under the AAVE token. This move marks the end of a months-long fight over protocol revenue control, which 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 framework that gives the DAO responsibility for funding Aave Labs' activities, including a $25 million stablecoin grant and 5,000 AAVE token allocation.
The Aave DAO, a community-run decision-making body, will now oversee the protocol's revenue, which reached $140 million in 2025 and is expected to match that in 2026. The 'Aave Will Win' proposal resolves a dispute that exposed deeper tensions over control of the protocol's user-facing products and revenue. With this decision, Aave becomes fully token-centric, with all revenue supplemented by application-layer revenue from Aave Pro, Aave App, Horizon, and Aave Kit. The proposal also takes a hard line against 'value leakage,' ensuring that service providers build exclusively for Aave, with measurable goals and reduced politics and friction in the governance process.
On the technical side, Aave V4's reinvestment feature and new 'Spokes' 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 a stated target of scaling from $40 billion to $1 trillion, positioning Aave as a financial network that any fintech, bank, or asset manager can plug into.