Observe@obsrvgmi
🚨 @aave is having a full blown civil war
And it might be the biggest governance fight defi has ever seen.
Heres a clean breakdown 👇
Aave has two sides:
– Aave labs → a centralised entity founded by stani
– Aave dao → token holders who govern the protocol
Now heres what happening,
Dec 4, 2025: Aave labs announces a partnership with @CoWSwap to improve swap pricing + mev protection on the aave interface.
Dec 11, 2025: A popular delegate, @DeFi_EzR3aL drops onchain analysis stating that swap fees from the new cow swap contract are being routed to a private wallet controlled by aave labs. Not the dao.
Translation: DAO revenue just got quietly cut off.
Dec 12, 2025: Marc zeller (largest delegate, aave chan initiative) calls it stealth privatization. Claims ~$10m per year that should go to the dao is gone.
Dec 16, 2025: Things go nuclear ☢️
A. Proposal called “poison pill” by Tulip King.
The demands:
– Seize all aave ip, code, and brand
– Force aave labs to become a dao owned subsidiary
– Claw back all past revenue earned using the aave brand
B. Then comes proposal #2 — “brand seizure” by former cto of aave labs @eboadom,
– Move trademarks, domains, socials to the dao immediately.
Logic: If dao pays for dev + marketing then dao should own the brand, domains, socials.
Aave Labs / Stani’s defense:
– This (cowswap thing) was never a fee switch.
– Frontend revenue was a surplus labs donated voluntarily.
– Aave labs is a private company.
– DAO owns the contracts, not the website.
– Labs pays for hosting, security, and frontend engineers.
Now the plot twist, amid all this chaos,
Aave labs opens a snapshot vote on dec 23👇
Proposal: Give aave token (aave dao) holders explicit control over brand assets, domains, socials, naming rights, github, npm, everything. (baed on @eboadom's proposal)
Except…
The author of the proposal @eboadom says he never approved it.
He claims it was rushed to vote with his name on it while discussion was still active. Calls it “disgraceful.” Urges people to abstain.
@Marczeller says the proposal was rushed during holidays, with fresh delegations gaining voting power.
Zoom out. This isn’t about cow swap. This isn’t about one wallet.
This is the unresolved question of defi:
Who actually owns a protocol? The code? The frontend? Or the brand?
Aave is about to set a precedent. And everyone is watching.
