Aave founder: Aave Labs to share non-protocol revenue with token holders

Stani Kulechov, founder of the crypto lending protocol Aave, announced that future revenue generated outside the Aave protocol will be shared with AAVE token holders. The statement follows the recent failure of a governance proposal that would have made Aave Labs, the protocol's developer, a subsidiary of the Aave DAO by absorbing its intellectual property and equity. During the vote, Kulechov purchased a large amount of AAVE to exercise his voting rights, sparking concerns about centralization. Kulechov explained that Aave must seek new business opportunities beyond its core decentralized finance (DeFi) operations, such as real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, institutional lending, and consumer financial products. He argued that direct DAO funding for these ventures would be inefficient and uncompetitive. Instead, he proposed fostering teams to develop products on the Aave protocol to increase revenue beyond its own fees. Kulechov stated that this external revenue would be shared with AAVE holders and that a formal proposal will be announced soon.