The controversial “Aave Will Win” proposal passed its first major governance stage on March 1, 2026. The initiative received 52.58% support, but ACI founder Marc Zeller almost immediately questioned the legitimacy of the vote.
During the Snapshot vote, the proposal received 622,300 votes in favor, 497,100 against, and 64,200 abstentions. Now, the Aave Labs request for funding of up to $42.5 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE moves to the Aave Request for Final Comment stage. At this stage, the terms may be revised before the final on-chain vote.
However, Zeller stated that the outcome was determined by addresses linked to Aave Labs. According to him, about 233,000 tokens from three clusters, as well as the delegation of 111,000 tokens from co-founder Stani Kulechov played a decisive role.
According to his calculations, if these votes were excluded, the result would look different: 387,000 votes in favor versus 497,100 against. This would completely change the balance of power and call the initiative into question.
The Vote Revealed a Deep Divide in Governance
The narrow margin of votes only highlighted that the conflict between Aave Chain Initiative and Aave Labs had been brewing for a long time. At the center of the dispute are control over the protocol, funding transparency, and the strategic direction of one of the largest DeFi lending platforms.
The essence of the proposal was an exchange: token holders were to approve funding, and Aave Labs committed to directing 100% of its product revenue to the DAO treasury. This includes fees from aave.com swaps, the upcoming mobile app, Aave Card, Aave Pro, the enterprise solution Aave Kit and the Aave Horizon RWA marketplace.
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In return, the company requested funds to cover operating expenses, which were previously financed from its own product revenue.
The initiative text explicitly states that by transferring all revenue to the DAO, Aave Labs will no longer be able to independently cover operating costs. Without income, the company will not be able to pay for development, business growth, and infrastructure maintenance.
After the vote ended, Stani Kulechov commented on the situation on X. He wrote that the Temp Check stage for the Aave Will Win proposal was successfully completed. According to him, this brings Aave Labs closer to a fully token-centric model, in which 100% of product revenue goes to benefit the $AAVE token.
Concerns About Growing Influence in Governance
After the voting results were published, Marc Zeller specifically pointed out the possible strengthening of Aave Labs positions in the governance system. This refers to the 75,000 AAVE the company is requesting as part of the initiative. In his opinion, this could increase its weight in future votes.
In a forum discussion, one user also expressed concern. He wrote that the risk of the ACI consortium using AAVE DAO treasury funds in its own interests is higher, since it does not have many tokens but controls day-to-day operations.
On the eve of the vote, on February 25, Zeller published an audit questioning the effectiveness of about $86 million received by Aave Labs at various times. This amount includes $16.2 million from the ICO in 2017, $32.5 million from venture rounds, $31.93 million in direct payments from the DAO and about $5.5 million in swap fees on aave.com, which he called unauthorized.
In his analysis, he evaluated historical funding through the lens of ROI. Zeller acknowledged that Aave Labs developed versions V1, V2 and the initial codebase for V3.0. However, he claimed that the main revenue growth began later and was linked to updates implemented by DAO service providers.
He stated that the revenue from version V3.0 was $3.33 million, while after improvements by service providers, income reached $179 million.
In response, Aave Labs published its own report the same day. In it, the company recalled key developments created before the transition to the service provider model. These include the liquidity pool model, Flash Loans, the Safety Module security module, and Efficiency Mode in V3.
BGD Labs Leaves the Aave Ecosystem
On February 20, BGD Labs announced that it would not renew its partnership with AaveDAO after April 1. This will mark the end of the company’s four-year tenure as the main technical contributor to the protocol. It was BGD Labs that played a key role in the development and support of version V3.
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In its exit statement, the company pointed to concerns about centralization around Aave Labs and an unbalanced governance model. These factors were the main reasons for the decision to leave the project.
BGD Labs also criticized the promotion of version V4. In its opinion, the update is being pushed too aggressively by emphasizing supposedly existing shortcomings of V3, which the company called unfounded. At the same time, V3 remains dominant in the market and has a strong security track record.
The discussed structure also proposes creating a Foundation that will own Aave trademarks and intellectual property on behalf of the DAO. This should address concerns that legal rights to the brand are currently concentrated solely with Aave Labs. The specific governance model for the foundation and details of the transfer of rights will be presented in a separate proposal.
