Aave · The Block
Aave founder Stani Kulechov says AAVE isn’t for sale ‘at a 70% discount’ following report of Payward bid
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Aave founder Stani Kulechov pushed back against reports that Kraken parent firm Payward is in talks to buy a 15% stake in the protocol at a $385 million valuation, which would represent 30% of the AAVE token's fully diluted valuation.
Key facts
- Aave founder Stani Kulechov pushed back against reports that Kraken parent firm Payward is in talks to buy a 15% stake in the protocol at a $385 million valuation, which would represent 30%
- In response, Kulechov submitted his “Aave Will Win” (AWW) proposal, which passed with about 75% support in April 2026, that redirected 100% of protocol and Aave-branded product revenue to the DAO
- First off, there is NO WAY we’d sell AAVE at a 70% discount lol," Kulechov said in an X post on Thursday
- Everyone at Aave Labs and Aave DAO works for $AAVE," he added
Summary
"First off, there is NO WAY we’d sell AAVE at a 70% discount lol," Kulechov said in an X post on Thursday. Those figures on Thursday, citing two unnamed sources. Notably, Kulechov did not outright deny that Aave Labs, the for-profit R&D firm that initially built the Aave protocol, could sell some of its accumulated (AAVE) tokens. "Aave Labs owns an allocation of AAVE that multiple market participants have discussed purchasing, directly or indirectly, through deeper long-term partnerships," Kulechov said, noting, however, that CoinDesk's "article's framing is inaccurate.