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Stani Kulechov, the founder and CEO of Aave Labs, the main development company behind the Aave decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol, denied claims that he recently purchased $15 million of Aave (<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/aave-price-index" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">AAVE</a>) tokens to influence a controversial community vote that failed to pass.&nbsp;
“These tokens were not used to <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/aave-governance-vote-rejected-brand-ownership-dao" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">vote on the recent proposal</a>, and that was never my intention. This is my life's work, and I am putting my own capital behind my conviction,” Kulechov <a href="https://x.com/StaniKulechov/status/2004503414705643866" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">said</a>.
He also said that Aave Labs has not clearly communicated the economic alignment between it and Aave token holders. “In the future, we'll be more explicit about how products built by Aave Labs create value for the DAO and AAVE token holders,” he added.
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 <img alt="Aave founder denies buying tokens to influence failed DAO vote" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-12/019b5c05-dbaa-7a05-975e-5e5aaf5fdfb0.png" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Source: <a href="https://x.com/StaniKulechov/status/2004503414705643866" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Stani Kulechov</a>
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Several members of the Aave community accused Kulechov of buying Aave tokens to <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/aave-founder-stani-kulechov-10m-aave-purchase-governance-vote" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">tilt the governance vote</a> in favor of Aave Labs by increasing his voting stake.
Cointelegraph reached out to Kulechov for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/aave-outlines-2026-roadmap-following-end-sec-probe" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Aave founder outlines 2026 ‘master plan’ after end to SEC probe</a>
<h2 id="controversy-erupts-in-the-aave-community-over-intellectual-property-rights">Controversy erupts in the Aave community over intellectual property rights</h2>
Kulechov’s comments followed the results of a community vote to bring Aave’s brand assets under the control of the Aave <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/learn/articles/what-is-a-dao" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">decentralized autonomous organization</a> (DAO), the community-led organization that governs the Aave DeFi protocol.
The proposal was submitted for community review after EzR3aL, a psysdonomous Aave DAO member, <a href="https://governance.aave.com/t/aave-cowswap-integration-tokenholder-questions/23530" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">said</a> that fees from a recent integration with decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator CoW Swap were directed to a wallet address controlled by Aave Labs.
<figure>
 <img alt="Aave founder denies buying tokens to influence failed DAO vote" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-12/019b5c0b-13ec-7f86-9c6e-90ca7758e3cd.png" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 The post over CoW Swap fees ignited debate within the Aave community. Source: <a href="https://governance.aave.com/t/aave-cowswap-integration-tokenholder-questions/23530" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Aave Governance</a>
 </figcaption>
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The fees, which are generated from crypto asset swaps using CoW Swap, rightly belong to the DAO, and the DAO should have been consulted before the fees were redirected, EzR3aL argued, <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/firestorm-erupts-aave-governance-cowswap-fees" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">igniting a firestorm of community pushback</a> against Aave Labs.
Over 55% voted “nay” on the <a href="https://snapshot.org/#/s:aavedao.eth/proposal/0xbc606159ddeae0184c2086055637d3f357351ec0adc4c9f4150751bc41918eba/votes" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">proposal</a>, and over 41% abstained from voting while only 3.5% of the community voted in favor of the proposal.
<figure>
 <img alt="Aave founder denies buying tokens to influence failed DAO vote" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-12/019b5c09-2d1b-722d-9658-3500d44ed470.png" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Snapshot of the Aave community vote to bring the brand assets under the control of the Aave DAO. Source: <a href="https://snapshot.org/#/s:aavedao.eth/proposal/0xbc606159ddeae0184c2086055637d3f357351ec0adc4c9f4150751bc41918eba/votes" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Aave DAO</a>
 </figcaption>
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However, even before the vote concluded, Aave DAO members voiced frustration, saying that <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/aave-governance-backlash-snapshot-vote-process-dispute" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">the vote was rushed</a> and normal community governance procedures were ignored.
Ernesto Boado, a former chief technical officer at Aave Labs, is listed as the author of the proposal.&nbsp;
However, he <a href="https://x.com/eboadom/status/2002987567780676065" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">said</a> the proposal was listed without his knowledge or consent and that he would not have approved submitting it had he been consulted before it was published.
Magazine: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/bitcoin-price-critical-level-ether-price-surge-chances-speculation-trade-secrets/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bitcoin’s critical level is $82.5K, Ethereum ‘not done yet’: Trade Secrets</a>

Aave founder denies buying tokens to influence failed DAO vote

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