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 shift means the DAO is now responsible for funding Aave Labs' activities, with a $25 million stablecoin grant and 5,000 AAVE token allocation approved. The proposal resolves a dispute over protocol revenue control, which began when swap fees were redirected away from the community treasury. The Aave DAO, a governance system that manages the Aave lending protocol, has decisively answered the question of who controls the protocol's most valuable asset: its user-facing products and the revenue they generate.
The proposal supplements protocol revenue with application-layer revenue from Aave Pro, Aave App, Horizon, and Aave Kit, and takes a hard line against 'value leakage.' Service providers must build exclusively for Aave, with measurable goals and governance process improvements planned. The technical side of the proposal includes Aave V4's reinvestment feature, which turns idle float capital in lending pools into yield-generating positions, and the expansion of collateral options through 'Spokes.' The team also plans to invest in agentic AI infrastructure for developers building on Aave. With roughly $25 billion in total value locked across multiple chains, Aave aims to scale from $40 billion to $1 trillion, positioning itself as a financial network that any fintech, bank, or asset manager can plug into.