The post Aave DAO Rejects Brand Ownership Proposal After Governance Vote appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Aave token holders voted against a controversial governance proposal seeking to place control of the protocol’s brand assets under DAO ownership. On Friday, the snapshot poll closed with 55.29% voting “NAY” and 41.21% abstaining. Only 3.5% of voters supported the proposal. The proposal asked whether Aave (AAVE) token holders should regain control over Aave’s domains, social handles, naming rights and other intellectual property through an entity under a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Supporters framed the move as a step toward decentralization and clarifying questions about brand stewardship. The rejection closed a tense governance episode for Aave, one of decentralized finance’s (DeFi) biggest lending protocols. It highlighted how timing, escalation and participation can shape governance outcomes in a DAO. Results of the Aave governance vote. Source: Snapshot Community members cite deeper token-equity tensions Beyond the vote itself, the rejection surfaced deeper concerns among influential token holders about how value capture and governance are structured at Aave. Wintermute founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy said on X that the trading firm voted against the proposal while urging Aave Labs to engage seriously on long-term alignment.  Gaevoy said resolving token value capture remains critical not just for Aave but for the broader crypto ecosystem, adding that success on that front could serve as a model for other protocols grappling with similar challenges.  Meanwhile, pseudonymous Lido advisor Hasu framed the dispute as part of a more fundamental problem with token-equity dual structures. In an X post, Hasu argued that combining governance tokens with separate equity entities creates misaligned incentives that are “fundamentally broken” and makes effective governance difficult.  Hasu said that while such structures emerged out of necessity at the time of regulatory hostility, long-term investors viewed them as transitional rather than permanent.  “As a long-time investor in Aave, I hope all parties can come…

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Filed under: News - @ December 26, 2025 10:15 pm