Aave founder responds to Payward acquisition rumors: Will not sell AAVE at a 70% discount
Odaily Odaily News Aave founder Stani Kulechov responded to reports that Kraken's parent company Payward is interested in acquiring a 15% stake in the Aave protocol, stating that AAVE is "impossible to sell at a 70% discount".
CoinDesk previously reported that Payward is in talks to acquire a 15% stake in Aave at a valuation of $385 million. At that valuation, it would represent only about 30% of AAVE token's fully diluted valuation, significantly below the market valuation.
Kulechov stated on X that the related report's wording was not accurate. He did not completely deny the possibility that Aave Labs might sell some of its AAVE tokens, but mentioned that Aave Labs does hold a certain AAVE allocation, and multiple market participants have discussed purchasing either directly or indirectly, or establishing deeper cooperation around long-term partnerships.
Aave is the largest decentralized lending protocol on the Ethereum ecosystem. Kulechov stated that Aave's annualized revenue is approximately $134 million, with related revenue flowing to the Aave DAO. He previously also proposed a governance plan to redirect revenue from Aave Labs, the protocol, and products back to the Aave DAO and token holders.
The rumors emerged as Aave is facing some pressure. Following the Kelp DAO incident in April, Aave's TVL has significantly declined. Although Aave itself was not directly attacked, the KelpDAO cross-chain bridge attacker utilized Aave to convert the stolen rsETH into other assets.
