The months-long governance dispute within the Aave community has come to an end with the approval of the 'Aave Will Win' proposal, a landmark decision that will see 100% of revenue from all Aave-branded products redirected back to the DAO and consolidated under the AAVE token. This move positions the DAO as the primary funding source for Aave Labs' activities, with a $25 million stablecoin grant and 5,000 AAVE token allocation approved to support the labs' endeavors. The proposal's passage marks a significant shift in the protocol's governance, cementing the AAVE token as the central asset and token holders as the primary beneficiaries of protocol revenue. The Aave community, which manages the Aave lending protocol through a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), has effectively established a token-centric model, where one asset, the AAVE token, represents the community's economic interests.
The 'Aave Will Win' proposal, deemed the most important in Aave's history, resolves a controversy that arose in December when delegates discovered that swap-related fees had been quietly redirected away from the community treasury. The proposal's approval decisively favors token holders, supplementing protocol revenue with application-layer revenue from Aave Pro, Aave App, Horizon, and Aave Kit, and generating an estimated $10 to $20 million in additional revenue. The Aave team plans to expand its offerings, including a 'fintech-like experience' with $1 million account protection per user and a card that will generate fees for the treasury. The proposal also takes a hard line against 'value leakage,' ensuring that service providers build exclusively for Aave and token holders, with measurable goals and governance process improvements aimed at reducing friction.
On the technical side, Aave V4's reinvestment feature and new 'Spokes' will expand collateral options and address DeFi liquidity demands. With roughly $25 billion in total value locked across multiple chains, 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.