The Aave community has voted in favor of the 'Aave Will Win' proposal, a framework that redirects all revenue from Aave-branded products back to the DAO, consolidating economic rights under the AAVE token. This move marks the end of a months-long governance dispute that began when swap fees were redirected away from the DAO treasury. The proposal, deemed the most important in Aave's history, positions the DAO as the central decision-making body, responsible for funding Aave Labs' activities. A $25 million stablecoin grant and 5,000 AAVE token allocation have been approved to support Aave Labs.
The Aave DAO, a community-run governance system, will now oversee the protocol's revenue, which exceeded $140 million in 2025. The 'Aave Will Win' proposal resolves a controversy 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 takes a hard line against 'value leakage,' ensuring that service providers build exclusively for Aave, with measurable goals and improved governance processes. Aave's technical roadmap includes the reinvestment feature in Aave V4, 'Spokes' to expand collateral options, and investment in agentic AI infrastructure for developers.
With approximately $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.