In a decisive move, the Aave community has voted in favor of the 'Aave Will Win' proposal, marking a significant shift in the protocol's revenue distribution. This proposal, deemed the most important in Aave's history by founder Stani Kulechov, ensures that 100% of revenue from all Aave-branded products is redirected 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.
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 resolves a dispute that arose in December when delegates discovered that swap-related fees had been quietly shifted away from the community treasury. This move decisively favors token holders, with protocol revenue, which reached $140 million in 2025, now supplemented by application-layer revenue from Aave Pro, Aave App, Horizon, and Aave Kit. The proposal also takes a firm stance against 'value leakage,' ensuring that service providers build exclusively for Aave, with measurable goals and zero tolerance for relationship gating or products built at the expense of token holders.
With Aave V4's reinvestment feature and the introduction of new 'Spokes,' the protocol is poised for expansion, addressing the demand side of DeFi liquidity and investing in agentic AI infrastructure for developers. As the largest lending protocol in DeFi, with roughly $25 billion in total value locked, Aave aims to scale from $40 billion to $1 trillion, positioning itself as a financial network for fintech, banks, and asset managers.