On February 13, 2026, the leading decentralized lending protocol Aave faced a historic governance showdown. On February 12, Aave Labs officially submitted the "Aave Will Win" framework temperature check proposal, aiming to transfer 100% of all protocol revenue generated by Aave-branded products to the Aave DAO treasury. The proposal also seeks to assign intellectual property and trademark assets to a newly established Aave Foundation, in exchange for the DAO’s ongoing commitment to funding its operations.
Dubbed by some core community members as a "cash-out governance experiment," this proposal not only redefines the boundaries of responsibility between profit-driven development teams and decentralized autonomous organizations, but also puts Aave V4 squarely in the spotlight of protocol evolution. This article offers an in-depth analysis across proposal details, community disputes, the strategic value of Aave V4, and AAVE’s secondary market performance.
Proposal Highlights: Full Revenue Transfer and Notable Funding Requests
According to the proposal, Aave Labs is relinquishing a broad range of revenue sources. This includes positive cash flow from the current Aave V3 protocol and aave.com frontend fees, as well as future commercial lines such as Aave V4, Aave Card, and AAVE ETF. In return, Labs has made clear funding requests to the DAO:
- Operating funds: $25 million in stablecoins (with $5 million paid upfront and $20 million released linearly over a year)
- Token incentives: 75,000 AAVE, unlocked monthly over the next 24 months
- Special development grants: A total of $17.5 million allocated to the development and market launch of Aave App, Aave Pro, Aave Card, and Aave Kit
If the proposal passes, Aave Labs will fully transition to a "pure technology service provider," surrendering any rights to protocol-level profit retention. All cash flow will go directly to the DAO treasury, to be managed collectively by token holders.
Aave V4: The Technical Foundation for Revenue Model Innovation
The proposal designates Aave V4 as the "core technical foundation for the protocol’s future development." Aave Labs emphasizes that V4’s new "Hub and Spoke" architecture enables revenue models previously unattainable. Each independent application chain or vertical market can deploy customized risk parameters and standalone revenue structures.
This design means Aave V4 is no longer just a liquidity layer for lending markets—it evolves into a composable DeFi infrastructure. While V3 has achieved over $100 million in annualized revenue, V4’s multi-chain revenue sharing, modular liquidity pools, and institution-grade compliance adapters could raise the revenue ceiling to new heights.
The proposal also outlines a clear upgrade path: 8–12 months after Aave V4 launches on mainnet, the protocol will gradually adjust V3 parameters and reduce new feature development, guiding the ecosystem toward migration.
Community Divide: "Institutionalization with Good Intentions" or "Aggressive Cash-Out"?
Although Labs describes this move as "proactively returning power to the DAO," Marc Zeller, a core advocate of the Aave ecosystem and founder of ACI, publicly rebuked the proposal within hours of its release.
Zeller argues this is a classic "negotiation anchor" tactic—starting with extremely aggressive terms to absorb backlash, then settling on a "compromise" that locks in funding far above reasonable levels. He estimates Labs’ actual funding demands (including token value and multiple grants) approach $50 million, stating: "If token holders are comfortable with governance being imposed this way, that’s their choice. But I don’t believe this is healthy governance."
Underlying the debate is Aave’s long-standing "ownership dispute": Should the protocol be owned by the DAO-centric community, or does the Labs-led development team hold de facto control? The incident at the end of 2025, when Labs redirected aave.com frontend revenue from the DAO treasury to a company-controlled wallet, directly triggered this proposal.
AAVE Secondary Market Performance: Governance Battle Reflected in Price
As of February 13, 2026, Gate market data shows AAVE’s real-time price at $112.36, with 24-hour trading volume at $4.16M, a market cap of $1.69B, and a market share of 0.074%. In the past 24 hours, AAVE gained +2.30%; over the past 7 days, it’s up +7.24%, outperforming Bitcoin (-1.19%) and Ethereum (-0.61%) during the same period.
| Time Period | Price Change | Percentage Change |
|---|---|---|
| 24 hours | +$2.5 | +2.30% |
| 7 days | +$7.51 | +7.24% |
| 30 days | -$66.15 | -37.28% |
| 1 year | -$141.19 | -55.92% |
Looking at longer timeframes, AAVE’s all-time high was $661.69 in 2021, and its all-time low was $26.02. The current price is down about 83% from its peak, sitting at a relatively low level since January 2024.
From a price prediction perspective, Gate’s model estimates AAVE’s average price for 2026 at $112.21, with a lower bound of $58.34 and an upper bound of $145.87. By 2031, the model projects a potential price range of $165.51–$305.22, implying a theoretical upside of +47% to +172% from current levels. In the short term, market sentiment has gradually recovered from extreme fear (score of 7 in early February) to a neutral-to-bullish stance, but macro liquidity and broader market direction remain key constraints.
Gate’s Perspective: Governance Transparency as a Litmus Test for Long-Term Value
For centralized exchanges, Aave’s current governance experiment offers valuable insights. Can a DAO manage brand assets and cash flows worth billions? Should development teams sustain operations through "profit retention" or a "service fee budget model"? There’s no standard answer, but consensus must be built through open, resilient on-chain voting.
Gate will continue to monitor Aave V4’s development and the ongoing governance of the Aave Will Win framework. As DeFi protocols face increasingly homogenized competition, those able to balance "developer incentives" and "community sovereignty" will demonstrate the institutional resilience needed to weather market cycles.
