Aave governance participants have approved a temporary check on a proposal that would reroute all revenue from Aave-branded products to the DAO treasury and align future development around the upcoming V4 upgrade.
The "Aave Will Win" proposal secured roughly 622,300 YAE votes (52.58%), with 497,100 NAY votes (42%) and 64,200 abstentions (5.42%). Voting ran from February 26 to March 1.
If fully approved, the framework would establish four operational pillars: channeling 100% of revenue from Aave-branded products to the DAO, creating a formal brand protection mechanism, ratifying V4 as the protocol’s primary technical foundation, and developing a system for funding strategic growth initiatives.
Revenue capture and V4 transition
Under the proposal, all gross product revenue from Aave Labs, minus direct partner incentives, would flow to the DAO treasury. This includes fees from Aave.com, the Aave App, Aave Card, Aave Pro, Aave Kit for enterprise integration, Aave Horizon for institutional and real-world assets, and a proposed AAVE exchange-traded product. Revenue from the swap integration on Aave.com, currently generating approximately $10 million annually, would also go to the treasury, with plans to expand to additional chains and services.
The framework ratifies Aave V4 as the primary technology layer, while V3, which generates over $100 million in annualized revenue, would enter “stable maintenance.”
The transition will occur in three phases: active development, stable maintenance, and legacy support. Withdrawals on V3 will remain open, with parameters gradually adjusted to encourage migration to V4.
Brand governance and funding
Aave Labs, the legal owner of the Aave trademarks, proposed a Foundation to manage brand governance since the DAO cannot hold trademarks directly. The Foundation would license the brand to approved entities and handle unauthorized use in line with DAO parameters.
The proposal includes plans to broaden market access for the AAVE token through regulated products, including futures and a spot exchange-traded product.
Funding requests include a primary grant of $25 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE, with $5 million released upfront and $20 million streamed over one year. The 75,000 AAVE would unlock linearly over 24 months. Additional milestone-based grants include $5 million each for the Aave App, Aave Pro, and Aave Card, and $2.5 million for Aave Kit.
Aave Labs stated the revenue shift is necessary to match the resource allocation of competitors and institutions moving onchain, as directing all revenue to the DAO treasury would mean the entity can no longer self-fund engineering, legal, and business operations.
Criticism and debate
Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave Chan Initiative, published an analysis of the vote, arguing that the proposal passed due to votes from addresses linked to Aave Labs.
According to Zeller, excluding roughly 233,000 AAVE from three Labs-linked clusters, including a 111,000 AAVE delegation from founder Stani Kulechov, would have flipped the vote, with NAY at 497,100 and YAE at approximately 387,000. Zeller also questioned whether token holders could vote independently across proposals involving Aave Labs and other service providers.
Matvii Diadkov
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