Svmuu News: Aave founder Stani Kulechov responded to reports that Payward, the parent company of Kraken, intends to acquire a 15% stake in the Aave protocol, stating that AAVE “cannot be sold at a 70% discount.”
CoinDesk previously reported that Payward was in talks to acquire a 15% stake in Aave at a valuation of $385 million. Based on that valuation, the deal would represent only about 30% of AAVE’s fully diluted valuation, significantly below market valuation.
Kulechov stated on X that the reports were inaccurate. While he did not entirely rule out the possibility that Aave Labs might sell a portion of its AAVE token holdings, he noted that Aave Labs does indeed hold a certain allocation of AAVE, and that multiple market participants have discussed purchasing them directly or indirectly, or exploring deeper collaboration regarding long-term partnerships.
Aave is the largest decentralized lending protocol in the Ethereum ecosystem.Kulechov said that Aave currently generates approximately $134 million in annualized revenue, which flows to the Aave DAO. He had previously proposed a governance plan to redirect revenue from Aave Labs, the protocol, and products to the Aave DAO and token holders.
These rumors come as Aave is facing some pressure. Following the Kelp DAO incident in April, Aave’s TVL dropped significantly. Although Aave itself was not directly attacked, the attackers behind the Kelp DAO cross-chain bridge exploit used Aave to convert the stolen rsETH into other assets.