Aave founder challenges report on Kraken investment talks

Aave founder Stani Kulechov has challenged reports that Kraken parent company Payward is negotiating to acquire a 15% stake in the decentralized lending protocol at a $385 million valuation, arguing that the reported terms misrepresent the situation.

In a post on X, Kulechov rejected the reported valuation cited by CoinDesk, which had attributed the information to unnamed sources. 

“First off, there is NO WAY we’d sell AAVE at a 70% discount lol,” he wrote, referring to the reported valuation, which he said represented only about 30% of AAVE’s fully diluted token valuation.

CoinDesk reported that Kraken is considering an investment of 35,000 ETH in return for 250,000 AAVE tokens and a 15% equity stake in Aave Group. A document reviewed by the publication valued the proposed transaction at about $385 million.

Two people familiar with the discussions also told the publication that Kraken intends to syndicate part of the investment, placing the deal’s estimated value at around $71 million. A Kraken spokesperson declined to comment, while Aave did not respond to the publication’s request for comment before the story was published.

Kulechov did not deny that discussions involving Aave-related assets have taken place. Instead, he said Aave Labs holds an allocation of AAVE tokens that several market participants have explored purchasing through long term strategic partnerships. He added that CoinDesk’s characterization of the discussions was inaccurate.

The founder also highlighted Aave’s financial performance, stating that the Ethereum-based lending protocol generates about $134 million in annualized revenue, with all of that revenue directed to the Aave DAO rather than Aave Labs.

Investment would expand Payward’s DeFi strategy

A third source familiar with Payward’s plans said that the proposed Aave investment would become the first in a series of transactions under Payward Asset Management, a business the company intends to use for investments across decentralized finance and other digital asset opportunities. The source added that Payward has sufficient capital and external partners to support similar deals.

Aave operates the largest decentralized lending protocol, where users lend and borrow digital assets through smart contracts without intermediaries. Lenders supply assets to liquidity pools to earn yield, while borrowers provide crypto collateral to secure loans.

Kraken and Aave have previously worked together. Kraken’s Layer 2 network Ink launched a white-label version of Aave called Tydro last year to provide lending infrastructure for the blockchain.

The comments follow governance changes approved earlier this year. Kulechov’s “Aave Will Win” proposal received about 75% community support in April and redirected all protocol and Aave-branded product revenue to the DAO and AAVE token holders. In return, the DAO approved multi-year funding for Aave Labs.

Aave released version 4 of the protocol in March with an updated hub and spoke architecture. Earlier this month, the protocol also introduced a revised risk framework after the April KelpDAO exploit, where attackers used unbacked rsETH as collateral on Aave to borrow other assets. Although Aave’s smart contracts were not compromised, the incident resulted in significant withdrawals from the protocol.

Kulechov said Aave Labs no longer receives protocol or product revenue because it now serves as a development provider for the DAO. He disclosed that the team is designing Aavenomics 3.0, which will include an automated, non-discretionary buyback mechanism for the AAVE token, although additional details have not yet been released.