Aave founder charts ‘master plan’ to trillion-dollar scale as DAO tensions mount, SEC ends 4-year probe

Aave founder Stani Kulechov, who is also CEO of Aave's parent company Avara, published a comprehensive 'master plan' detailing how the leading DeFi lending protocol intends to scale into the "foundational credit layer" of the onchain economy, targeting the next trillion dollars in assets and millions of new users.

The plan rests on three pillars: Aave V4, which introduces a hub-and-spoke liquidity model to unify fragmented pools and attract institutional adoption; Horizon, a compliance-aligned market for tokenized RWAs that is rapidly growing; and the Aave App, a consumer gateway integrating a zero-fee fiat stablecoin on/off-ramp, slated for early 2026.

This announcement coincides with escalating governance tensions within the Aave DAO regarding Aave Labs' control over revenue streams, such as swap fees redirected from the DAO treasury, leading to a 'poison pill' proposal. Kulechov defended the team's commitment, noting they are major AAVE holders. Furthermore, the plan follows the news that the SEC concluded its four-year investigation into Aave without taking enforcement action, which Kulechov viewed as validation for DeFi.

(Source：The Block)