Aave начинает новую эру после закрытия дела SEC, планируя масштабное развитие к 2026 году Headline: Aave embarks on a new era following SEC closure, planning extensive growth by 2026

The founder of the project, Stani Kulechov, revealed plans for 2026.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has concluded a four-year investigation into the lending platform Aave, as announced by its founder, Stani Kulechov.

“In recent years, the decentralized finance sector has been subjected to unfair regulatory pressure. We are pleased to leave that behind as we enter a new era where developers can truly build the future of finance. DeFi will prevail,” he stated.

Following the announcement, the price of the AAVE token briefly surged by 3% before correcting down by 1.1% to $185.

The closing of the Aave case is part of a larger trend towards normalizing relations between regulators and the crypto industry under the new administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. According to The New York Times, as of January 2025, the SEC has suspended or ended 60% of investigations into crypto projects.

The CEO of Aave termed 2025 as the most successful year in the project’s history.

The total net deposits reached a record $75 billion. Since its launch, the protocol has processed payments totaling $3.3 trillion and issued loans exceeding $1 trillion, placing Aave among the 50 largest banks in the U.S., Kulechov emphasized.

Currently, the project controls 59% of the DeFi lending market, providing 61% of all active loans in this sector.

In 2025, Aave generated $885 million in fees, accounting for 52% of all lending protocol revenues.

Kulechov also shared the project’s goals for 2026, outlining three main areas of development that he termed the foundational “pillars”: Aave V4, Horizon, and Aave App.

Aave V4 represents a significant update aimed at enhancing the protocol’s architecture using the Hub and Spoke model.

“This upgrade will enable Aave to handle assets worth trillions of dollars, positioning the protocol as the preferred choice for any institution, fintech, or company seeking access to deep, reliable liquidity,” Kulechov noted.

The second pillar, Horizon, aims to transform Aave into a central hub for decentralized financing of Real World Assets (RWA), focusing on directly engaging traditional finance players.

The project plans to increase its net deposits from $550 million to $1 billion. According to the protocol’s founder, deepening collaborations with Circle, Ripple, Franklin Templeton, and VanEck will aid in achieving this goal.

The third strategic direction is the Aave App, a mobile application launched in November. Kulechov refers to it as a “Trojan horse,” intending to mask the complex blockchain infrastructure behind a user-friendly interface and bring DeFi into the mainstream.

“At the beginning of next year, we will initiate a full-scale launch of the Aave App and embark on the journey to our first million users. This will directly stimulate the growth of the Aave protocol through a completely new and untapped market. Aave cannot scale to trillions of dollars without widespread product adoption,” he said.

An Aave DAO member, known as tulipking, proposed through a lawsuit regarding a «poison pill» to transfer complete control of the intellectual property and assets of Aave Labs to the decentralized organization.

The aim is to prevent “covert privatization” of the protocol and return all value created to AAVE holders.

This move was triggered by Aave Labs’ unilateral decision to integrate the CoW Swap aggregator, which redirected fees from the front end to a private wallet of the company.

“This is a protective measure to save the DAO from centralized capture. By monetizing the Aave brand, front end, and user base without token holder consent, Aave Labs effectively privatized an asset that should belong to the community,” tulipking wrote.

His proposal also includes input from Mark Zeller, the founder of Aave Chan Initiative, who described tulipking’s initiative as “the most significant proposal in the governance history” of the protocol. He believes the outcome will have long-lasting implications on the DAO model itself and the fundamental principles of governance token valuation.

In a forum post, Zeller also emphasized that it remains unclear “who owns the Aave trademark.”

Kulechov confirmed that the integration with CoW Swap did indeed alter the revenue flow. However, he characterized the previous contributions to the DAO treasury as a “voluntary donation,” rather than a legal or procedural obligation.

According to the Aave CEO, the switch to CoW Swap is due to product improvements — more advantageous price execution and protection from MEV. He also pointed out that Aave Labs, as the developer and operator of the front end, has a legitimate right and even an obligation to profit from its work.

Nevertheless, Kulechov acknowledged the community’s criticism, admitting that such a decision needed prior discussion.

It’s worth noting that in late October, the Aave community proposed launching a token buyback program worth $50 million funded by protocol revenues.