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

Aave founder Stani Kulechov responded to reports regarding Kraken's parent company Payward's intention to acquire a 15% stake in the Aave protocol, stating that AAVE "cannot be sold at a 70% discount." Previously, CoinDesk reported that Payward was negotiating to acquire a 15% stake in Aave at a valuation of $385 million. Based on that valuation, it would only correspond to about 30% of the fully diluted valuation of the AAVE token, which is significantly lower than the market valuation.

Kulechov stated on X that the reports were not accurate. He did not completely deny that Aave Labs might sell some of its held AAVE tokens, but he mentioned that Aave Labs does indeed hold a certain allocation of AAVE, and multiple market participants have discussed purchasing through direct or indirect means or engaging in deeper cooperation around long-term partnerships. Aave is the largest decentralized lending protocol in the Ethereum ecosystem. Kulechov stated that Aave currently has an annual revenue of about $134 million, with the related revenue flowing to Aave DAO. He had previously proposed a governance plan to redirect the revenues from Aave Labs, the protocol, and products to Aave DAO and token holders.

The rumor surfaced at a time when Aave is experiencing some pressure. After the Kelp DAO incident in April, Aave's TVL significantly declined, and although Aave itself was not directly attacked, the KelpDAO cross-chain bridge attackers had used Aave to convert the stolen rsETH into other assets.