Key Takeaways:
- Aave DAO passed AIP 469 on April 12, 2026, granting Aave Labs $25M in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE tokens.
- The “Aave Will Win” framework directs 100% of protocol and product revenue to the DAO treasury, ending prior disputes.
- Stani Kulechov targets $1T+ TVL via Aave V4, consumer apps, and RWA expansion under the newly approved structure.
Aave Votes Yes on $25M Stablecoin and 75,000 AAVE Token Grant for Aave Labs
The proposal, AIP 469, cleared with 522,780 AAVE tokens cast in favor, representing roughly 74.89% of participating votes. Opposition totaled 175,310 AAVE, with ACI.eth accounting for the bulk of dissent at approximately 166,000 tokens against.
The approved grant packages $25 million in aEthLidoGHO, a yield-bearing stablecoin drawn from the Aave V3 Ethereum Lido market, alongside 75,000 AAVE tokens vesting linearly over 48 months. At prevailing prices near $90 to $91 per AAVE, the token portion carried an estimated value of $6.8 million. The recipient address is Aave Labs at 0x488c053F07391dC78b12Da7107eb22aF77A255a1.
According to defillama.com data, Aave currently holds $25.08 billion in total value locked (TVL), with annualized fees running at $549.16 million and annualized revenue at $73.4 million. The protocol carries $17.508 billion in outstanding borrowings and a treasury balance of $83.49 million. Annual operational expenses stand at $18.07 million.
The “Aave Will Win” framework originated in a January 2, 2026, governance forum post by Stani Kulechov, who argued the protocol had grown too insular and needed to expand into real-world assets, consumer products, and institutional finance. Kulechov set a target of $500 trillion in addressable assets. Aave‘s framework moved through a temperature check, a narrowly passed ARFC in March, and now this binding funding vote.
A late-2025 dispute triggered much of the urgency. Aave Labs had redirected swap fees collected via a Cowswap integration away from the DAO treasury, drawing community criticism over who controls brand-adjacent revenue. AIP 469 addresses that directly. Under the new model, 100% of revenue generated by Aave-branded products and the protocol itself flows to the DAO treasury. Aave Labs receives grants and operates exclusively on Aave-related work.
Kulechov called the passage “the most important proposal in Aave’s history.” His announcement read: “If you own AAVE, you own not just the economic rights of the protocol, but the brand, the users, and the integrations.”
The framework targets added revenue streams of $10 million to $20 million annually from products including Aave App, Aave Pro, Aave Card, Aave Kit, and Horizon, the protocol’s RWA expansion vehicle. Each product carries milestone-based grant structures totaling up to $17.5 million in future disbursements not included in this vote.
Aave V4 sits at the center of the technical roadmap, featuring modular architecture, GHO stablecoin integrations, and a “Spokes” model for new collateral types. Aave Labs also absorbed operations from BGD Labs, whose technical contributor role ended on April 1, 2026.
Regulatory positioning is part of the plan. The framework calls for a MiCA CASP license in Ireland, a UK EMI license, and global policy advocacy. Kulechov frames these as moats, not checkboxes.
The stablecoin disbursement structure breaks down as $5 million available immediately, $5 million streamed over six months, and $15 million streamed over 12 months. Any unspent portion must return to the treasury after 12 months. The AAVE token allocation carries no voting rights during the vesting period.
AAVE price moved up 5% to 6% following the vote’s execution, and its still up more than 3% as of 8:30 a.m. Eastern time on April 13. The token traded at $93.79 according to DefiLlama metrics, with a market cap of $1.423 billion and $311.86 million in 24-hour volume. Approximately 19.88% of the market cap sits staked.
Whether the plan delivers on Kulechov’s $1 trillion TVL ambition depends on execution. The DAO has the alignment it wanted. Now it has to use it. “This is the direction we are committing to, a multi-year journey. The foundation is set. Now it’s time to build. Aave will win,” Kulechov’s X post explained.
