A significant governance decision has been made by the Aave community, with the 'Aave Will Win' proposal being approved, marking a major milestone in the protocol's history. This proposal, deemed the most crucial in Aave's history by its founder, Stani Kulechov, establishes a framework that channels 100% of revenue from all 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 Aave DAO acts as the community-driven decision-making body for the protocol, overseeing aspects such as upgrades, fees, and treasury use.
The 'Aave Will Win' proposal aims to make Aave fully token-centric, with one asset and one model: $AAVE. This move resolves a controversy that emerged in December when it was discovered that swap-related fees had been diverted from the community treasury. 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.
The application layer is expected to drive ambition, with Aave App targeting mainstream users with a 'fintech-like experience' and a card that generates fees for the treasury. To prevent 'value leakage,' service providers must build exclusively for Aave, with measurable goals and governance process improvements planned. Technically, Aave V4's reinvestment feature will turn idle capital in lending pools into yield-generating positions, creating an additional revenue stream. New 'Spokes' will expand collateral options, addressing DeFi liquidity demand.
With roughly $25 billion in total value locked, Aave is the largest lending protocol in DeFi, and the approved proposal positions it for further growth, aiming to scale from $40 billion to $1 trillion and become a financial network that any fintech, bank, or asset manager can plug into.