Aave founder Stani Kulechov has announced that the decentralized finance protocol will discontinue its Family iOS wallet in the coming year and retire the Avara umbrella brand as the company fully consolidates its operations under Aave Labs.
The strategic move away from mainstream wallet products comes from a bet that mainstream users will adopt crypto through targeted financial applications, such as savings and loans, rather than general purpose explorers.
Family will stop onboarding new users starting April 1, with existing customers able to access the app until April 2027 before moving to Aave’s infrastructure.
The move comes weeks after Aave transferred management of its Lens Protocol social network to Mask Network, completing a dramatic narrowing of its scope after years of ecosystem expansion and internal governance battles.
Kulechov said the decision reflects lessons learned from trying to onboard millions of users through different product approaches.
“During this journey, we learned that onboarding millions of users requires purpose-built experiences, such as savings, rather than generic, open wallet experiences,” he said in the announcement.
The Family team, acquired by Avara in 2023 for its design capabilities, contributed work on several Aave products, including Aave Pro, the protocol’s mobile app and brand identity.
According to the company’s announcement, their core technology, Family Accounts, will continue to power the authentication and wallet features built into Aave’s suite of products rather than operating as a standalone consumer app.
Existing Family users will retain full control of their funds through accounts.aave.com using their credentials, although the app’s functionality will be gradually limited to account access and withdrawals only.
Kulechov emphasized that the infrastructural approach supports “a smoother user journey, stronger security protections and more intuitive interfaces, while preserving user sovereignty and full control of funds.“
The brand consolidation follows a turbulent six months during which Aave was accused of governance manipulation and internal disputes over asset ownership.
In December, Kulechov purchased approximately $10 million worth of AAVE tokens shortly before a controversial vote, prompting critics including DeFi strategist Robert Mullins to claim the move was aimed at increasing voting power rather than demonstrating long-term commitment.
