The Aave community has voted in favor of the 'Aave Will Win' proposal, marking a significant milestone in the protocol's history. This proposal establishes a framework that redirects all revenue from 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. The proposal resolves a dispute that arose in December when delegates discovered that swap-related fees had been quietly shifted away from the community treasury.
The 'Aave Will Win' proposal decisively favors token holders, ensuring that protocol revenue, which exceeded $140 million in 2025, will be supplemented by application-layer revenue from Aave Pro, Aave App, Horizon, and Aave Kit. The proposal also takes a hard line against 'value leakage,' requiring service providers to build exclusively for Aave and eliminating relationship gating or products built at the expense of token holders.
With this development, Aave is poised to scale from $40 billion to $1 trillion, positioning itself as a financial network that can be integrated with various fintech, banks, and asset managers.