In a significant development, the Aave community has voted in favor of the 'Aave Will Win' proposal, which marks a major milestone in the protocol's history. This proposal, described as the most crucial in Aave's history by its founder, Stani Kulechov, 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 the proposal approving a $25 million stablecoin grant and a 5,000 AAVE token allocation to support Aave Labs' operations.
The Aave DAO, a community-run decision-making body, manages the Aave lending protocol, enabling token holders to vote on key decisions such as upgrades, fees, and treasury use. The 'Aave Will Win' proposal resolves a dispute that arose in December when it was discovered that swap fees had been quietly redirected away from the community treasury. This controversy highlighted a deeper tension between Aave Labs and the DAO over control of the protocol's most valuable assets. The proposal decisively favors token holders, ensuring that protocol revenue, which reached $140 million in 2025, will be supplemented by application-layer revenue from Aave Pro, Aave App, Horizon, and Aave Kit.
Swaps on Aave.com and Aave Pro are already generating an additional $10 to $20 million in revenue. The application layer is a key area of focus, with Aave App aiming to provide a 'fintech-like experience' for mainstream users, complete with $1 million account protection per user and a card that will generate fees for the treasury.
The proposal also takes a strong stance against 'value leakage,' requiring service providers to build exclusively for Aave and setting measurable goals to reduce friction. On the technical side, Aave V4's reinvestment feature will turn idle float capital in lending pools into yield-generating positions, creating an additional revenue stream.
The team also plans to expand collateral options, address the demand side of DeFi liquidity, and invest in agentic AI infrastructure for developers building on Aave. With approximately $25 billion in total value locked across multiple chains, Aave is the largest lending protocol in DeFi, generating $140 million in annual revenue.
The founder's target is to scale from $40 billion to $1 trillion, positioning Aave as a financial network that any fintech, bank, or asset manager can plug into, rather than a traditional bank.