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The Trigger: A Secret "Profit-Sharing" Scheme Worth Millions
The storm was ignited when the community discovered that the Aave CoW Swap interface service fees, generated by the built-in swap feature on the Aave frontend, were not flowing into the DAO’s public treasury. Instead, they were being routed to a private wallet controlled by Aave Labs.
According to estimates by on-chain liquidity experts, this protocol revenue leakage amounts to approximately $10 million annually. Community members have raised sharp questions: since users trade based on their trust in the Aave brand, shouldn't these proceeds belong to all token holders? This "privatization of frontend revenue" is viewed by many as a disguised crypto protocol governance attack, directly challenging the principles of fair distribution in DeFi.
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The Power Lever: The Logic Behind the Founder's $10 Million Buyback
Just as the community was preparing to reclaim brand control through a vote, founder Stani Kulechov suddenly spent over $10 million to buy back AAVE tokens.
While a founder's buyback is typically seen as a bullish signal, the timing—occurring right before a sensitive governance vote—has been interpreted as using financial dominance to achieve a monopoly on token voting power. Critics point out that if a core founder has already cashed out hundreds of millions of dollars over the past few years, choosing to buy back tokens on the eve of a vote involving Labs' interests is clearly a move to secure an absolute say in the Aave brand asset ownership dispute. This "money-buys-votes" phenomenon has once again sparked fierce debate over DeFi governance mechanism design flaws.
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The Showdown: Sovereignty Struggle Between the DAO and Labs
Aave DAO has now launched a highly aggressive proposal: demanding that all assets—including the domain (aave.com), trademarks, GitHub repositories, and social media accounts—be transferred from Labs to a legal entity controlled by the DAO.
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Fears of a Brain Drain: Prominent governance delegate Marc Zeller warned that turning Labs into a mere "contractor for token holders" could lead to the loss of the core technical team.
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Reshaping Valuation Logic: Currently, the AAVE medium-to-long-term price prediction is clouded by uncertainty. Investors are weighing two scenarios: If Labs loses brand control, will Aave's pace of innovation stall? If the DAO compromises, will the $AAVE$ token's value accrual capability shrink? This conflict between a DAO and a commercial entity represents the "growing pains" that every major DeFi protocol must eventually face.
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Investor Observation Guide
Before this governance drama concludes, keep a close eye on these developments:
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On-chain Concentration: Monitor whether other whales are choosing to sell and exit to avoid risk.
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Snapshot Voting Details: Watch the real voting inclination of mid-sized community holders regarding the "nationalization of brand assets" proposal.
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Labs' Compromise: Observe if Labs proposes a more reasonable protocol revenue-sharing plan to appease the community's anger.
Summary
The current state of Aave is a microcosm of the DeFi 2.0 era: when a protocol starts generating massive real profits, where is the line between "code ownership" and "brand ownership"? The outcome of this AAVE governance power struggle will set the benchmark for how large-scale DeFi projects operate for years to come.