Wintermute said he would vote against Aave’s token alignment proposal, citing unclear governance, low value capture and escalating political infighting.
Wintermute founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy said the trading company would vote against Aave’s token alignment proposal, adding to growing opposition within the Aave DAO as voting nears its end.
In a detailed thread on He revealed that Wintermute has been an investor in AAVE since 2022 and actively participates in governance, but neither he nor the company has any exposure to Aave Labs stock.
Wintermute’s proposal slams
According to the executive, the main problem is the accumulation of value and the growing mismatch of expectations between Aave Labs and a significant portion of AAVE token holders on who should capture value and how key external functions, particularly business development, should operate. He said these unresolved tensions make the current proposal premature and potentially dangerous.
Gaevoy also criticized the tone and politics surrounding the vote. While acknowledging that Aave founder Stani Kulechov’s communications “have been far from perfect,” he said the backlash against Aave Labs went too far and negatively impacted the token’s price.
Both sides, he added, accuse each other of “hostile takeovers,” a claim he said has some validity depending on one’s point of view. Gaevoy also said reversing or softening previous decisions, such as fee-related changes, could have helped restore the situation. But instead, the argument escalated.
He framed the vote as a “temperature check” rather than a decisive endpoint, saying the real priority should be de-escalation and serious work on long-term solutions for capturing symbolic value. While urging Aave Labs to engage constructively after the vote, Gaevoy wrote:
“Whether it succeeds or fails doesn’t really matter.”
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The comments come as the token alignment proposal appears unlikely to pass. Snapshot data shows that a majority of AAVE DAO voters are opposed or abstaining, with about 55% voting against the proposal, about 41% abstaining, and 3.5% voting for it. The vote is set for December 26.
Critics argued that Aave Labs rushed the governance process and pushed the proposal to a vote while discussions were still ongoing. The broader dispute dates back to a dispute over the misappropriation of swap fees, worth millions of dollars, which allegedly benefited the company rather than the DAO treasury.
The alignment proposal itself focuses on token holders seeking control of Aave brand assets, including domains, social media accounts, and naming rights. The end goal is to ensure that any entity holding these assets remains accountable to the DAO.
Roadmap 2026
Before the governance tensions, the platform presented an ambitious roadmap for 2026 that aims to expand the protocol well beyond its current footprint. Kulechov revealed the plan, which is based on three pillars: Aave V4, Horizon and the Aave app. Aave V4 is expected to redesign the lending protocol to reduce liquidity fragmentation and support much greater capital flows.
Horizon focuses on institutional users, allowing companies to borrow against real-world tokenized assets such as U.S. Treasuries while meeting compliance needs. Meanwhile, the Aave app is positioned as a consumer-facing product aimed at onboarding millions of new users, while Aave aims for broader adoption.
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