Раздор внутри Aave: токен теряет 19% на фоне гражданской войны за контроль Translation: Discord within Aave: Token loses 19% amid civil war for control

Over the past week, the native token of the Aave lending platform (AAVE) has declined by 19%, marking the worst performance among the top 100 assets.

This drop in the token’s value coincides with escalating internal conflicts within the Aave community regarding the control of the protocol’s brand, domains, and public channels.

The clash between Aave Labs (the centralized development organization) and the Aave DAO (comprising token holders and community members) began with a controversial deal.

On December 4, Aave Labs announced a partnership with CoW Swap, purportedly to enhance swap pricing and integrate MEV protection into the protocol’s interface.

On December 11, a prominent delegate under the alias EzR3aL published an analysis suggesting that the fees from the updated swap contracts were being directed to a private wallet controlled by Aave Labs instead of the DAO.

As a result, the decentralized organization lost a significant portion of its income.

«Did Aave Labs secretly siphon millions of dollars from the treasury generated from swap fees?» EzR3aL queried.

Following the analysis, leading delegate and community activist Marc Zeller described the situation as a covert privatization of the project. According to his estimates, the DAO may have missed out on around $10 million in annual revenue due to the management firm’s actions.

On December 16, former CTO of Aave Labs, Ernesto Boado, presented a proposal with amendments that included:

By December 21, Aave Labs had submitted a proposal for preliminary voting within the community, starting on December 23, attributing sole authorship to Boado.

The company claimed that discussions within the community highlighted the need for urgent action. However, Boado himself criticized the hastiness of the vote, stating that he had not coordinated the publication with Aave Labs. He also urged token holders to refrain from participating.

«I did not intend to put the proposal to a vote while the community was actively discussing it and continuously providing valuable insights. This undermines all standards of trust. Governance should entail open discussions, even at times when it’s challenging. Attempting to rush a vote is disgraceful,» he stated.

Zeller also criticized the timing, adding that the holiday season diminishes coordination and turnout among major holders, including institutions.

«A real civil war has erupted within Aave. […] This isn’t just about CoW Swap. It’s not about a single wallet; it’s about a fundamental question in DeFi: who truly owns the protocol? The code? The frontend? Or the brand? Aave is on the brink of establishing a precedent. And everyone is watching,» emphasized a user named Observe, who compiled a timeline of events.

At the time of writing, 63% had voted against the proposal, while 32% abstained.

Although all discussions occurred solely within the community through social media and forums, the situation has certainly alarmed investors. Analysts began to observe significant token movements.

On December 22, according to Onchain Lens, a whale exchanged their entire AAVE reserve of 230,350 tokens for 5,869 stETH ($17.5 million) and 227.8 WBTC ($20 million). These transactions caused the token price to drop by approximately 10%.

Simultaneously, researchers from Lookonchain recorded AAVE purchases from a wallet presumably linked to Aave’s founder, Stani Kulechov.

Within a week of the decline, that address accumulated 84,033 AAVE ($12.6 million) at an average price of $176. It currently bears an unrealized loss of over $2 million.

It is worth mentioning that in December, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission concluded a four-year investigation into the Aave platform.