Aave DAO has approved one of the most consequential governance decisions in the protocol’s history, passing AIP-469 to award Aave Labs $25 million in stablecoin funding and 75,000 AAVE tokens. Based on the token prices referenced in the source material, the package was valued at roughly $31.8 million. More importantly, the vote marks the first binding implementation of founder Stani Kulechov’s “Aave Will Win” framework, which is designed to align protocol growth, product development, and treasury ownership under a clearer governance structure.
A Binding Vote With Clear Financial Terms
The proposal passed on April 12, 2026, with 522,780 AAVE voting in favor, representing about 74.89% of the participating vote. Opposition totaled 175,310 AAVE, with the majority of dissent attributed to ACI.eth. The approved funding package includes $25 million in aEthLidoGHO, a yield-bearing stablecoin sourced from the Aave V3 Ethereum Lido market, as well as 75,000 AAVE tokens that will vest linearly over 48 months.
At the time referenced in the report, AAVE was trading near $90 to $91, implying that the token portion alone was worth approximately $6.8 million. The stablecoin tranche is structured in phases: $5 million becomes available immediately, another $5 million will be streamed over six months, and the remaining $15 million will be streamed over twelve months. Any unused portion must be returned to the DAO treasury after a year. The vested AAVE allocation does not carry voting rights during the vesting period, a detail that addresses potential governance concentration concerns.
Why This Proposal Matters Beyond the Grant
While the headline number is significant, the deeper importance of AIP-469 lies in how it settles the question of revenue control. Under the newly approved model, 100% of revenue generated by the Aave protocol and Aave-branded products will flow to the DAO treasury. Aave Labs, in turn, will operate through grants and work exclusively on Aave-related initiatives.
This governance reset appears to be a direct response to tensions that emerged in late 2025, when Aave Labs redirected swap fees generated through a Cowswap integration away from the DAO treasury. That move triggered criticism from parts of the community and exposed a wider governance issue: who ultimately controls revenue generated by products closely tied to the Aave name. AIP-469 provides a formal answer by placing the treasury at the center of value capture.
Kulechov described the proposal as “the most important proposal in Aave’s history”. His public comments framed AAVE holders as owners not only of the protocol’s economic rights, but also of the broader value associated with the brand, user base, and ecosystem integrations. In practice, the vote creates a cleaner operating relationship between the DAO and its core development organization.
The “Aave Will Win” Framework and Long-Term Expansion Plans
The proposal is also the first enforceable step under the broader “Aave Will Win” framework introduced by Kulechov in a governance forum post on January 2, 2026. In that post, he argued that Aave had become too inward-looking and needed to expand more aggressively into real-world assets (RWA), consumer-facing products, and institutional finance. The framework reportedly targets a vast addressable market and is meant to position Aave for a much larger role in global financial infrastructure.
According to the source material, the growth plan includes products such as Aave App, Aave Pro, Aave Card, Aave Kit, and Horizon, the latter being Aave’s vehicle for RWA expansion. These products are expected to create $10 million to $20 million in additional annual revenue. The roadmap also includes milestone-based grant structures totaling up to $17.5 million in future disbursements, although those amounts were not part of the AIP-469 vote itself.
Aave V4 at the Center of the Technical Roadmap
A central pillar of the new structure is Aave V4. The report describes V4 as featuring a modular architecture, deeper GHO stablecoin integrations, and a “Spokes” model for onboarding new collateral types. The technical direction is intended to make the protocol more flexible and better suited for new categories of borrowing and asset inclusion, especially in areas tied to tokenized real-world assets and institutional participation.
The article also notes that Aave Labs absorbed operations from BGD Labs, whose role as a technical contributor ended on April 1, 2026. That consolidation may be relevant to understanding why the DAO moved to formalize funding and accountability now: with more responsibilities concentrated under Aave Labs, the governance framework needed to define funding flows and treasury ownership more explicitly.
Regulatory Ambitions and Institutional Positioning
Beyond product and protocol development, the framework includes a compliance and policy agenda. Aave is reportedly targeting a MiCA CASP license in Ireland, a UK EMI license, and broader global policy advocacy. Kulechov’s framing, as cited in the source, suggests these are not merely administrative milestones but strategic moats that could help Aave compete more effectively as decentralized finance intersects with regulated markets.
This regulatory component fits with the protocol’s ambition to broaden its reach. If Aave intends to support institutional borrowing against real-world assets and serve a wider class of users through branded financial products, licensing and legal clarity become more central to execution.
Treasury Metrics Show the Scale of the Bet
DefiLlama data cited in the report provides context for why the DAO may feel comfortable taking this step. Aave currently holds roughly $25.08 billion in total value locked (TVL), with $549.16 million in annualized fees and $73.4 million in annualized revenue. Outstanding borrowings are reported at $17.508 billion, while the treasury balance stands near $83.49 million. Annual operating expenses are estimated at $18.07 million.
These figures suggest a protocol operating at substantial scale, but also one that is trying to convert scale into more coherent treasury governance. By requiring that all Aave-related economic activity route value back to the DAO, the approved structure effectively seeks to strengthen tokenholder alignment and reduce ambiguity around off-treasury revenue capture.
Market Reaction and What Comes Next
The market responded positively after the vote was executed. According to the article, AAVE rose 5% to 6% immediately following implementation and remained up by more than 3% as of 8:30 a.m. Eastern on April 13. The token was trading at $93.79, with a market capitalization of about $1.423 billion and $311.86 million in 24-hour trading volume. Roughly 19.88% of the market cap was reported as staked.
Even so, the vote does not guarantee that Aave will achieve Kulechov’s ambitious goal of pushing TVL toward the $1 trillion level. What it does provide is clearer alignment between product execution and treasury ownership. The DAO has now approved the framework it debated for months, after a temperature check and a narrowly passed ARFC in March. The next phase will test whether governance clarity can translate into product growth, stronger revenue generation, successful regulatory positioning, and deeper expansion into RWA and institutional markets.
In that sense, AIP-469 is not just a funding proposal. It is a structural reorganization of how Aave intends to build, monetize, and govern itself over multiple years. The foundation, as Kulechov put it, has been set. What follows will depend on execution.