CMC News

Aave Labs Proposes $50M Funding Deal While Offering Full Revenue to DAO

#Aave Labs presented a governance proposal on Thursday offering to redirect all product revenue to the AAVE DAO treasury while requesting substantial operational funding. The non-binding temperature check introduces the "Aave Will Win Framework," designed to position token holders as primary #protocol beneficiaries.

The funding request totals $25 million in stablecoins and 75,000 $AAVE tokens, plus $17.5 million in additional grants tied to specific product deployments. These funds would cover Aave Labs' operations, which previously self-financed most activities beyond core protocol work.

Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave Chan Initiative and prominent DAO participant, immediately challenged the proposal as a disguised extraction attempt. Zeller characterized the ask as a $50 million payout presented without prior DAO engagement.

He suggested the proposal follows a familiar negotiation pattern where extreme initial terms absorb criticism before #scaled-back requests are framed as reasonable compromises. Zeller questioned whether the governance process retains meaningful authority if Labs can impose outcomes unilaterally.

The proposal surfaces after months of tension over Aave ownership between the #DAO, which has guided the lending protocol since the governance token launch, and Aave Labs, which originally developed the brand. December events intensified the conflict when Aave Labs redirected Aave(dot)com swap fees previously flowing to the DAO treasury into a company-controlled wallet.

One token holder responded by proposing a hostile takeover to seize Aave Labs' intellectual property, codebase, brand assets, and equity. The attempt to convert the company into a DAO subsidiary failed during a holiday governance vote but prompted CEO Stani Kulechov to open revenue and #brand-sharing discussions.