Stani Kulechov, founding father of Aave — the biggest decentralized lending protocol on Ethereum — has publicly dismissed stories that Aave Labs is in talks to promote a major AAVE token allocation to Kraken’s mum or dad firm Payward at a steep low cost to market worth. Whereas stopping wanting denying that strategic partnership discussions are underway, Kulechov pushed again forcefully in opposition to the deal’s reported framing, utilizing the controversy to restate Aave’s income mannequin and announce a coming improve to its token economics.
The Report That Triggered the Pushback
CoinDesk reported on Thursday, citing two unnamed sources, that Kraken mum or dad agency Payward is in talks to purchase a 15% stake within the Aave protocol at a $385 million valuation — a determine that might symbolize simply 30% of the AAVE token’s absolutely diluted valuation. A separate report elaborated that the proposed transaction was valued at roughly $71 million and concerned Kraken investing 35,000 ETH in alternate for 250,000 AAVE tokens and a 15% fairness stake in Aave Group.
The implied low cost to AAVE’s market value drew fast neighborhood backlash — and a swift rebuttal from the highest.
“First off, there may be NO WAY we’d promote AAVE at a 70% low cost lol,” Kulechov wrote in an X publish on Thursday, calling the article’s framing inaccurate.
Kulechov mentioned Aave Labs owns an allocation of AAVE that a number of market contributors have mentioned buying, both instantly or not directly, by means of deeper long-term partnerships — however separated these discussions from the concept Aave would promote tokens cheaply in opposition to token-holder pursuits.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov dismisses rumors of promoting $AAVE at a 70% low cost
Income Mannequin Clarified
The controversy gave Kulechov a platform to strengthen Aave’s restructured economics. Below the Aave Will Win (AWW) proposal, already handed by the DAO, 100% of Aave Protocol and GHO income is directed to the AAVE token. The framework covers all product income streams, together with the Aave App, Aave Professional, and Swaps, with none of it flowing to Aave Labs, which operates solely as a service supplier to the DAO.
The AWW proposal handed with about 75% help in April 2026, redirecting 100% of protocol and Aave-branded product income to the DAO and AAVE token holders, with the DAO approving multi-year funding for Labs in return.
Kulechov confirmed that each one mental property — together with the Aave model and any software program constructed for Aave — belongs to AAVE token holders, not Aave Labs, beneath the present governance construction. He added that the protocol is at the moment producing $134 million in annualized income, all directed to the Aave DAO.
Aavenomics 3.0 and Automated Buybacks
Past clarifying the income mannequin, Kulechov teased a major improve to the protocol’s token mechanics. He revealed that the Aave staff is designing Aavenomics 3.0, which features a new automated and non-discretionary AAVE buyback mechanism, with additional particulars to observe.
The deliberate improve extends a discretionary buyback program already cleared to buy as much as $50 million of AAVE per 12 months. An automatic system would cut back reliance on governance votes for particular person buyback selections, making a extra predictable and steady hyperlink between protocol income and token purchases — a construction more likely to attraction to institutional contributors evaluating AAVE as a yield-bearing asset.
Context: The KelpDAO Fallout
The Kraken stories floor in opposition to a tough backdrop. After the April 18 KelpDAO exploit, an attacker deposited $292 million in stolen rsETH into Aave V3 as collateral and borrowed substantial quantities of wrapped ETH in opposition to it, saddling the protocol with an estimated $196 million in unhealthy debt. Aave’s complete worth locked collapsed from $26.4 billion to almost $20 billion inside days. Kulechov confirmed on the time that Aave’s personal good contracts weren’t compromised.
The incident weighed closely on person confidence, with Aave’s TVL dropping roughly $12 billion — about 46% of its deposits — in simply days after the assault. Deposits at the moment sit close to $12 billion. Earlier this month, Aave launched an up to date threat framework to stop conditions just like the KelpDAO assault.
AAVE’s TVL Knowledge (Supply: DefiLlama)
Kraken’s Broader Technique
For Kraken, a stake in Aave would match a sample of aggressive growth forward of its anticipated public itemizing. The alternate agreed this 12 months to purchase derivatives venue Bitnomial for as much as $550 million, securing uncommon US derivatives licenses. The 2 firms have already got a longtime relationship: Kraken’s Layer 2 Ink launched a white-label occasion of Aave known as Tydro final 12 months to function its core lending infrastructure, following a 99.8% DAO vote to license Aave’s code to the community.
Market Response and Analyst Outlook
Regardless of the post-KelpDAO turbulence, AAVE has attracted bullish institutional consideration. Following Kulechov’s publish, the token reached an intraday excessive of $87.50 earlier than easing to round $82, whereas persevering with to obtain help from Normal Chartered’s beforehand revealed $3,500 value goal for AAVE by finish of 2030. Grayscale Analysis has individually flagged AAVE as undervalued at present costs beneath a cash-flow mannequin making use of conventional fintech earnings multiples.
Kulechov closed with a pointed assertion on alignment: “Everybody at Aave Labs and Aave DAO works for $AAVE.” A quarterly neighborhood name is anticipated inside weeks, the place the Kraken partnership standing and Aavenomics 3.0 particulars are anticipated to turn into clearer.
