Decentralized
- Aave Labs has put forward a controversial proposal that calls for the company to transfer brand assets to the Aave DAO.
- But he never consulted the author of the proposal, who believes people need more time to debate the issue.
- Critics have accused the company of rushing the vote during the holiday season, when attention to DAO’s affairs is at an all-time low.
A version of this article appeared in our Decentralized newsletter of December 23. Register here.
Aave Labs came under renewed scrutiny over the weekend after the company advanced a controversial proposal without consulting its author.
The proposal calls for Labs to transfer brand assets – such as naming rights, social media accounts and the aave.com domain name – to the DAO, the cooperative that governs the protocol.
On Sunday, the Labs submitted the proposal to a first vote which will end on Christmas Day.
The proposal was prompted by a recent outcry over the labs’ decision to retain some revenue generated by the website through which most users access the Aave protocol. Previously, this revenue was directed to the Aave DAO.
Critics called it an unacceptable attempt to cash in on the Aave brand, which this year underwent a DAO-funded visual overhaul.
Labs defended the decision, calling it a reasonable way to cover the costs of running this website.
The ensuing clash was a surprising display of disunity between organizations that usually work closely together.
The proposal’s author, software engineer Ernesto Boado, said the proposal was “intended to provide explicit clarity and DAO control over how Aave brand assets and intellectual property are, firstly, owned and, secondly, may be used.”
Boado is co-founder of Bored Ghosts Developing, a company hired by the DAO to provide software development and security services.
Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave and CEO of Aave Labs, said the discussion was thorough and token holders should be ready to vote.
As of Tuesday, there were more than 160 responses to the proposal, making it the fourth most commented on proposal in DAO history.
The labs’ decision to move to the voting stage drew a rebuke from DAO members who had criticized the labs in recent weeks.
Boado called the push for a vote “shameful,” citing the ongoing discussion, and urged DAO members to vote “abstain” to express their discontent.
Abstaining is the DAO equivalent of voting for a write-in candidate.
Marc Zeller, co-founder of Aave Chan Initiative, one of the DAO’s largest delegates, criticized Labs for scheduling a vote during Christmas week.
“What began as an effort for greater clarity and a fairer relationship between token holders and current administrators, instead of today’s asymmetric dynamic, is now morphing into an attempted hostile takeover by the labs,” he wrote, adding that ACI would vote “abstain.”
Not everyone was convinced that Aave Labs was rushing the vote.
One person on the forum noted that the controversy had been widely covered by crypto media. They added that they sold some of their AAVE tokens due to the dust.
“Some DAO service providers attempted to change the status quo, ignored the risks, and blindly pursued “DAO rights,” turning a minor issue into a revolution,” they wrote.
Their decision to sell could be a smart move if the controversy drags on. AAVE price fell 20% last week. During this period, Bitcoin and Ethereum remained stable.
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Crypto has been seen as a refuge for the misfits. What are the chances that they will find a “real job” during the next bear market?
People leaving crypto makes no sense. If you have skills that are useful in the real world of business or a job, you’ve never really been in crypto.
-chainyoda (@chainyoda) December 19, 2025
Aleks Gilbert is DL News‘ DeFi correspondent based in New York. You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.
