Who controls the money — and the brand?

The debate between Aave DAO and Aave Labs continues to escalate.

In what began as a spat over the “private monetisation” of features on the platform’s front-end, the DAO is now seeking ownership of “brand assets.”

The rift may have been sparked by a relatively small revenue stream, but the focus is now on brand ownership.

Aave is DeFi’s biggest app, currently making $100+ million per year, and the brand carries enormous potential for making money off future products and features.

A forum post from longtime Aave contributor Ernesto Boado of BGD Labs requests that control of “domains, social handles, naming rights, etc.” be transferred to “a DAO-controlled vehicle… with strong anti-capture protections.”

He describes the “implicit expectation of alignment” which has existed between service providers and the DAO, with examples including Aave Labs’ operation of aave.com or BGD Labs’ running of the aave-dao GitHub profile.

However, the proposal seeks to “bring explicit clarity and DAO control” to the ownership and use of the Aave brand.

Read more: Aave hits breaking point as DAO and Labs clash over control

The DAO discusses

At the time of writing, Boado’s post has received 36, generally supportive, replies in under 24 hours.

EzR3aL, author of the “open letter” which kicked off the debate last week, was among the first to weigh in.

They stress the need for the DAO to “protect” itself, suggesting further criteria for any DAO legal wrapper. Never introducing an additional governance token and non-compete conditions for service providers are among the suggestions.

The Aave Chan Initiative delegation’s Marc Zeller argues that the DAO has effectively paid for the “brand assets” four times over.

Firstly, via (Aave “ancestor”) LEND’s ICO in 2017, then by allocating tokens to the “genesis team.”

Later, he argues, user acquisition was earned via offering “liquidity mining” rewards, driving brand loyalty. Finally, “generous service provider fees” were paid to develop the assets in question.

Zeller believes the outcome of this debate will have a “long-lasting impact on DAOs in general.”

Aave co-founder and former COO Jordan Lazaro Gustave urges the community not to underestimate the contribution of all service providers, including Aave Labs.

He does, however, note a “divide between Aave Labs’ equity-holder incentives and AAVE token-holder incentives.”

One example being the @aave X handle’s selective amplification of Labs-positive content over the current DAO debate.

In a hypothetical buyout of the Aave brand from Labs, he’s concerned that DAO, which “funded and bootstrapped” Aave via its 2017 ICO, would end up “structurally sidelined.”

Indeed, Circle’s recent acquisition of the Axelar team brings this concern into sharp focus. The opposite extreme, max extraction by service providers, is equally unpalatable.

Read more: Aave snubs Sky’s USDS as collateral and 3 ‘underperforming’ chains

In a follow-up post, Boado stressed that his proposal isn’t about polarization, but “AAVE self-sovereignty, and the rest is irrelevant.”

‘Aave will win’

At the time of writing, Aave Labs and its representatives are yet to respond on the forum.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov published a longform post highlighting his work on Aave over “nearly a decade.” Despite all of Aave’s achievements, he still sees the project as being at “day zero.”

He highlights upcoming features like the protocol’s v4, RWA-focused Horizon and the Aave App as 2026 “main pillars.”

On alignment, Kulechov says it “isn’t declared” but “shown by doing the work,” and that governance debates are “not a symptom of misalignment.”

However, he doesn’t address the content of Boado’s RFC, posted a few hours prior. Nor in other recent posts to X, which reference buying $10 million worth of AAVE and an August letter notifying of a dropped SEC investigation.

Read more: Is Aave’s ‘Balance Protection’ backed by Relm — an FTX insurer?

Emilio Frangella of Aave Labs’ parent company Avara, voiced his frustration. “You just can’t win in this industry,” he says.

The official @aave X handle has reposted Kulechov’s posts and positive reactions to them, but has yet to highlight the governance discussions.

On the Aave Labs side, messaging has also changed since Monday. Repeated calls from Aave and Kulechov that “DeFi will win,” a motto shared with Zeller, has now changed to “Aave will win.”

What “Aave” means exactly is apparently still very much up for debate.

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