Aave Governance Conflict Widens Over $10 Million Revenue Dispute

A significant conflict has emerged within the Aave ecosystem regarding revenue sharing between the Aave DAO and its primary developer, Aave Labs. The dispute centers on Aave Labs' decision to replace ParaSwap with CoW Swap as the underlying infrastructure for trading on the protocol's main website. Governance delegates estimate this change has eliminated a revenue stream worth approximately $200,000 per week, totaling about $10 million annually, which would otherwise benefit AAVE token holders.

Marc Zeller of the Aave Chan Initiative strongly criticized the move as a "stealth privatization" of brand assets, arguing Aave Labs unilaterally redirected user volume for its own monetization without DAO approval. Zeller expressed concern about future upgrades like Aave V4, questioning if other features might also be ring-fenced from the DAO.

In response, Aave Labs founder Stani Kulechov defended the action, stating the funds from ParaSwap were a "discretionary surplus" donated to the DAO, not a mandated protocol fee. Kulechov emphasized a distinction between the DAO-governed smart contracts (the protocol) and the front-end interface, which he described as a privately funded product maintained by Aave Labs. Therefore, Aave Labs claims the right to monetize the interface for sustainability. The firm acknowledged poor communication regarding the switch, stating the primary motivation for moving to CoW Swap was to achieve better execution prices and stronger MEV protection, not revenue generation.

(Source：BeInCrypto)