Aave Holders Reject Brand Control Proposal, What’s Next?

Aave token holders voted down a proposal that would have moved control of the protocol’s brand assets under DAO ownership. The Snapshot poll closed Friday with 55.29% voting NAY. Another 41.21% chose to abstain. Support came in at just 3.5%.

The proposal asked whether Aave domains, social media accounts, naming rights, and other brand property should be held by an entity tied to the DAO. Supporters said the change would formalize control and reduce gray areas around brand use. Voters did not agree.

The result ends a heated governance episode at one of DeFi’s largest lending platforms. It also shows how vote timing and turnout can decide outcomes in token-led systems.

Concerns Around Value and Control

The vote exposed wider unease among large holders about how Aave handles token value and decision power. Wintermute founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy said his firm voted against the proposal. In a public post, he called for direct talks with Aave Labs on long-term alignment.

Gaevoy said token value capture remains a key issue, both for Aave and for crypto more broadly. He added that fixing this problem could set a reference point for other protocols facing the same setup.

Pseudonymous Lido advisor Hasu focused on structure. He said mixing governance tokens with separate equity entities leads to broken incentives and weak decision making. In his view, these setups were created during a period of heavy regulatory pressure and were never meant to last.

Hasu said long-term investors expected a path toward a single structure, either token-based or equity-based. He urged all sides to meet and design a cleaner model that aligns ownership and control.

Dispute Over Process

Tension grew in the days before the vote. Critics objected to the decision to move the proposal to Snapshot while forum talks were still active. They said the fast move reduced input and cut short debate.

The process dispute became personal as attention turned to Aave founder Stani Kulechov. Reports showed Kulechov bought $10 million worth of AAVE tokens ahead of the vote. Some community members said the timing raised concerns about holder power in token voting.

Large balances can shift results quickly, especially when turnout is low. In this case, abstentions made up more than 40% of votes cast.

The rejection keeps brand control where it is for now. More importantly, it leaves open larger questions about how Aave plans to link tokens, governance, and company interests. Those issues remain unresolved and are likely to return in future proposals.