Aave founder responds to Payward acquisition rumors: will not sell AAVE at a 70% discount

Odaily reports that Aave founder Stani Kulechov has responded to reports that Kraken parent company Payward is interested in acquiring a 15% stake in the Aave protocol, stating that it is "impossible" for AAVE to be sold at a 70% discount.

Earlier, CoinDesk reported that Payward was in talks to acquire a 15% stake in Aave at a valuation of $385 million. At that valuation, it would only represent approximately 30% of AAVE's fully diluted valuation, significantly lower than the market valuation.

Kulechov stated on X that the related report's wording was not accurate. He did not completely deny that Aave Labs might sell some of its held AAVE tokens but mentioned that Aave Labs does have a certain AAVE allocation, and that multiple market participants have discussed purchasing, either directly or indirectly, or exploring deeper collaborations centered on long-term partnerships.

Aave is the largest decentralized lending protocol on the Ethereum ecosystem. Kulechov stated that Aave currently generates an annualized revenue of approximately $134 million, with the related revenue flowing to the Aave DAO. He previously also proposed a governance plan to redirect the revenue from Aave Labs, the protocol, and its products back to the Aave DAO and token holders.

The rumors emerge as Aave faces 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 used Aave to convert the stolen rsETH into other assets.