Jack Paul 
Aave moves toward revenue sharing model
Aave Labs has announced plans to share revenue from off-protocol activities with AAVE token holders. The company is preparing to submit a formal governance proposal that will detail how this revenue sharing will work. This comes after some community debates within the Aave ecosystem about how value should flow back to token holders.
I think this is a significant shift. For a while now, there’s been discussion about whether protocols should share more of their earnings with the people who hold their governance tokens. Aave seems to be moving in that direction, which could set a precedent for other DeFi projects.
Growth concerns and expansion plans
In a statement from Aave Labs founder Stani Kulechov, the company acknowledged that despite Aave Protocol’s strong position in DeFi, its current growth rate isn’t where they want it to be. The protocol currently focuses mainly on lending activities around ETH, BTC, and leveraged strategies. But their original vision was broader – they wanted to provide lending through smart contracts across many more asset types.
What’s interesting here is the admission that focusing only on the existing DeFi market might not be enough. With traditional finance institutions showing more interest in crypto, Aave seems to be thinking about how to capture that market too.
V4 and real-world assets
Aave V4 appears to be central to their expansion strategy. The new version will introduce a modular architecture that allows different risk profiles to be isolated from each other. This could open up new use cases like real-world asset (RWA) backed loans, borrowing through custodians, and brokerage integrations.
The company talks about building infrastructure that could eventually support hundreds of trillions of dollars in asset classes through RWAs and similar instruments. That’s ambitious, perhaps overly so, but it shows where they’re aiming.
GHO stablecoin’s role
Aave’s stablecoin, GHO, will apparently play a significant role in this expanded vision. The goal is for GHO to become what they call a “centralized savings and liquidity tool” – though that phrase “centralized” might raise some eyebrows in the DeFi community. They want it to provide access to new RWA-based yield and lending opportunities.
Community response and next steps
Following ongoing community discussions, Aave Labs has taken this clear position on revenue sharing. They argue that this approach will enhance ecosystem cohesion and create long-term value for token holders. A formal proposal detailing everything will be submitted soon.
It’s worth noting that while this announcement has generated positive sentiment, the actual implementation details will matter most. How much revenue will be shared? What mechanisms will be used? What safeguards will protect the DAO’s long-term interests? These questions will need answers in the governance proposal.
The company’s statement suggests they’re thinking about governance and risk safeguards as part of the proposal. That’s probably wise – sudden changes to tokenomics can sometimes create unintended consequences.
Overall, this feels like Aave is trying to address both immediate community concerns about value capture and longer-term strategic questions about growth. Whether they can successfully execute on both fronts remains to be seen, but the direction seems clear enough.