Aave community probes CoW Swap integration and Aave Labs ‘stealth privatization’ of protocol

A governance dispute has erupted in the Aave community after an Orbit delegate alleged that the recent integration of CoW Swap redirects swap fees away from the Aave DAO treasury to an address controlled by Aave Labs, contrasting with a previous Paraswap referral setup that benefited the DAO. The delegate's onchain analysis suggests this new fee stream, estimated at potentially $200,000 per week, represents a diversion of revenue. The Aave Chan Initiative (ACI) echoed concerns, calling it a potential "stealth privatization" of revenue and questioning the loss of Paraswap referral income and flash loan fees due to CoW Swap's structure. ACI also raised concerns about revenue sharing from Aave Labs products like Aave Vaults and Horizon, and the potential impact of the planned Aave v4 liquidation engine on DAO revenue. Aave founder Stani Kulechov responded, asserting that Aave Labs is entitled to monetize its own opinionated frontend interface, which is separate from the core protocol, and that the decision to donate previous Paraswap surplus was voluntary. He maintained that the CoW Swap integration was for user experience and MEV protection, and that Aave Labs' goal is to grow the protocol for the benefit of tokenholders.

(Source：The Block)