Внутренние конфликты Aave приводят к 19% обвалу токена на фоне подозрений в приватизации Translation: Internal conflicts at Aave lead to a 19% token crash amid suspicions of privatization.

Over the past week, the native token of the lending platform Aave (AAVE) has declined by 19%, showcasing the poorest performance among the top 100 assets.

The crash of the coin is occurring amid escalating tensions within the Aave community regarding control over the protocol’s brand, domains, and public channels.

The conflict between Aave Labs (a centralized developer company) and the Aave DAO (coin holders and other community members) was ignited by a controversial agreement.

On December 4, Aave Labs announced a partnership with the CoW Swap project, allegedly aimed at enhancing swap pricing and integrating MEV protection into the protocol’s interface.

On December 11, a prominent delegate known as EzR3aL published an analysis indicating that the fees from the updated swap contracts were being redirected to a private wallet controlled by Aave Labs rather than the DAO.

As a result, the decentralized organization has lost a significant portion of its income.

«Did Aave Labs secretly siphon millions of dollars in swap fees from the treasury?» EzR3aL questioned.

Following the analysis, major delegate and network activist Marc Zeller described the situation as a concealed privatization of the project. By his calculations, the DAO had potentially forfeited around $10 million in annual revenue due to the actions of the managing company.

On December 16, former CTO of Aave Labs, Ernesto Boado presented a proposal for changes that included:

By December 21, Aave Labs issued a proposal for preliminary voting within the community that commenced on December 23, with Boado credited as the sole author.

The company stated that discussions within the community indicated a need for urgent action. However, Boado himself described the vote as hasty and noted that he did not coordinate the announcement with Aave Labs. He also urged coin holders to refrain from participating.

«I hadn’t intended to present this proposal for a vote while the community was actively discussing it and continuously providing valuable input. This violates all standards of trust. Public governance should imply open discussion, even when it is challenging. Rushing to vote is shameful,» he commented.

Zeller also criticized the timing of the vote, adding that the holiday period hampers coordination and turnout among large holders, including institutions.

«Within Aave, a genuine civil war has erupted. […] This isn’t about CoW Swap. It isn’t about a single wallet; it’s about a fundamental question in DeFi: who truly owns the protocol? The code? The frontend? Or the brand? Aave is about to set a precedent. And all eyes are on this,» emphasized a user named Observe, who compiled a chronology of events.

At the time of writing, 63% of voters were opposed to the proposal, with 32% abstaining.

While all discussions have occurred solely within the community across social media and forums, the situation has undoubtedly alarmed investors. Analysts have begun to track significant token movements.

According to Onchain Lens, on December 22, a whale exchanged its entire AAVE stash of 230,350 tokens for 5869 stETH ($17.5 million) and 227.8 WBTC ($20 million). These actions caused the token’s price to plummet by about 10%.

Simultaneously, researchers at Lookonchain noted purchases of AAVE from a wallet presumably linked to Aave founder Stani Kulechov.

Over the week, this address accumulated 84,033 AAVE ($12.6 million) at an average price of $176. It now holds an unrealized loss of over $2 million.

It’s worth mentioning that in December, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission concluded a four-year investigation into the Aave platform.