Controversial Vote on Billion-Dollar Altcoin Under Scrutiny Yields Result

In the concluded Aave DAO vote, criticisms directed at Aave Labs have so far been unsuccessful. The DAO, which manages the protocol, rejected a proposal that aimed to request the transfer of certain “brand assets” from the company.

Thus, in the weeks-long debate surrounding the popular DeFi protocol Aave, Aave Labs critics lost a significant vote.

The vote is seen as the culmination of tensions between Aave Labs, the company that developed the first version of the protocol, and Aave DAO, the cooperative structure that currently manages Aave. However, this balance may not last long. Marc Zeller, one of the most influential figures within the DAO, hinted that a similar vote could be held again after the holiday season.

Aave offers peer-to-peer lending and borrowing capabilities on several blockchains, primarily Ethereum. According to DefiLlama data, the protocol is the largest decentralized finance application with over $33 billion in user deposits.

The controversy began at the start of the month. Aave Labs decided not to transfer some of the revenue generated through app.aave.com, where the vast majority of users access the protocol, to the DAO. While it was previously stated that this revenue was directed to the DAO treasury, this move by the company was criticized as an attempt to “profit from the Aave brand at the expense of the DAO.” The fact that the brand underwent a visual redesign this year with DAO funds further intensified the backlash.

This tension culminated in a proposal submitted by software engineer and Aave contributor Ernesto Boado. Boado requested that “brand assets” such as name rights, social media accounts, and the aave.com domain name be transferred to the DAO. The proposal became one of the top 10 most commented-on proposals in the DAO’s history.

However, a new controversy arose on December 21st when Aave Labs put the proposal to a vote without consulting Boado. Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave and CEO of Aave Labs, argued that sufficient discussion had taken place and that token holders should have been prepared to vote. Critics, however, claimed that the timing, coinciding with the Christmas holidays, was deliberately intended to limit participation.

According to the final results, 55% of the votes were against the proposal. 41% abstained, while only 3.5% supported the proposal. Following the vote, Kulechov acknowledged at the DAO forum that the economic alignment between Aave Labs and AAVE token holders needed to be clarified, and stated that in the future, it would be more clearly explained how the company’s products add value to the DAO.