The long‑running tension over who really “owns” Aave protocol has sharpened after a new governance proposal asked the DAO to seize formal control of its brand.
Former CTO Boado Leads Push for DAO Ownership
The brand‑control plan comes from former CTO and BGD Labs co‑founder Ernesto Boado, who posted the proposal “[ARFC] $AAVE token alignment. Phase 1 – Ownership” on the governance forum on December 16. In it, Boado asks AAVE holders to demand that whoever currently controls its key brand assets; trademarks, domains like aave.com, social handles and developer gateways—transfer them into a DAO‑controlled legal vehicle with “strong anti‑capture protections.”
Boado argues that as long as a single company or small group controls “soft assets like brand, marketing channels, gateways, and ‘Aave’ attribution,” every other contributor becomes “de facto subordinated to that party,” even if the DAO manages smart‑contract parameters on‑chain. The specification asks token holders to vote on a simple question: should the DAO and AAVE holders “regain full control over Aave’s brand, naming rights, and associated assets,” with any third party—Aave Labs, BGD Labs or others—required to pass those rights into a DAO‑steered wrapper.
CoW Swap backlash and Stani’s X clarification
The proposal follows weeks of anger over Aave Labs’ integration of CoW Swap into the main protocol interface and allegations that positive‑slippage and referral revenue from that routing flowed to an Aave Labs address rather than the DAO treasury.
Under pressure, Kulechov stressed that it runs its own “opinionated” front end, separate from the on‑chain protocol, and that the company can monetise that interface—CoW Swap routing included—without separate DAO sign‑off, particularly for features that sit outside core lending logic. He also emphasised that the DAO is not a legal entity and therefore does not own trademarks or enforce IP in court; in his framing, the DAO governs contracts and risk, while Aave Labs and affiliated entities hold the brand.
As debate intensifies, Kulechov has tried to cool markets by swapping roughly 10 million dollars of wrapped ETH into AAVE, a move interpreted by analysts as a signal of alignment even as he resists the idea that the DAO already owns everything that carries the Aave name.
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