$AAVE Token Rights

Updated Apr 13, 2026

Overview

Token(s): AAVEstkAAVEaAAVE
Token Type: Governance
Utility: Staking

AAVE is the governance and utility token of Aave, enabling holders to propose and vote on protocol upgrades, risk parameters, and treasury decisions, while staking in the Safety Module provides backstop security against shortfalls and earns incentives.

Governance Rights

Control

Governance includes protocol parameters, treasury management, upgrades, and onchain revenue decisions. AAVE, stkAAVE, and aAAVE all carry voting power. Two community-elected 5-of-9 Guardian multisigs exist: the Protocol Emergency Guardian can pause markets, and the Governance Emergency Guardian can veto malicious proposals. Delegated Steward roles handle risk parameters and treasury operations within governance-set boundaries. The Aave Will Win framework establishes a community-protected vehicle to independently govern Aave's brand assets and IP on behalf of token holders.

Governance Decisions

AAVE

AAVE, stkAAVE, and aAAVE holders vote onchain via Governance V3 with execution through Timelock. Short Executor proposals have a 3-day voting period, Long Executor proposals (governance parameter changes) have a 10-day voting period. Cross-chain voting is supported on Polygon and Avalanche via storage proofs

Treasury Decisions

AAVE

The Aave Treasury is a Collector contract deployed on each network, controlled by governance. It receives the reserve factor (a percentage of borrower interest), liquidation fees, flashloan premiums, and 100% of GHO borrow interest. Fund transfers require governance proposals. Delegated Finance Stewards manage treasury operations within governance-approved parameters.

Revenue Decisions

AAVE

Token holders control all fee parameters via governance: reserve factor rates, liquidation fees, and flashloan premiums. The admin roles that set these parameters are ultimately controlled by token holders. The $50M annual buyback budget was approved by governance vote.

Fee Switch

$50M annual budget for AAVE buybacks, passed as a permanent program in November 2025. Weekly purchases range depending on market conditions. Revenue sources include reserve factor fees from borrower interest, liquidation penalties, flashloan premiums, and GHO borrow interest.

Resources

Foundation Multisigs / Addresses

0x9AEE0B04504CeF83A65AC3f0e838D0593BCb2BC7

Treasury runway dashboardaave.tokenlogic.xyz

Primary Value Accrual

Buybacks

Value accrues through governance-approved $50m annual buyback program funded by protocol revenue, with additional yield to stkAAVE stakers

Equity Statement

Aave Labs (subsidiary of Avara, the parent holding company) operates the primary interface at aave.com and collects frontend fees independently of the DAO. In December 2025, a CowSwap integration replaced the previous Paraswap routing, redirecting swap fees from the DAO treasury to an Aave Labs-controlled address. Labs maintained the interface and frontend are separate from the protocol, independently funded. On February 12th 2026, Aave Labs created a proposal for the Aave Will Win Framework, which was approved and directs 100% of Aave-branded product revenue to the Aave DAO treasury and create a framework for the DAO to fund strategic growth and development.

Economic Rights

Value Capture

$50M annual budget for permanent AAVE buybacks funded by protocol revenue, plus stkAAVE staking yield from the Safety Module. According to the Aave Will Win framework, AAVE holders own the brand, users & integrations of Aave and revenue is directed to the DAO.

Buybacks

AAVE

The $50M annual buyback program directs weekly purchases of $250K–$1.75M in AAVE, adjustable based on market conditions, liquidity, and protocol revenue. Bought-back tokens are directed to the DAO treasury.

Dividends

N/A

No direct revenue distribution to holders is currently active. Staking AAVE as stkAAVE in the Safety Module earns yield from the treasury for bearing slashing risk, but this is an incentive program rather than a revenue share. The Safety Module is being transitioned to Umbrella (aToken staking for automated bad debt coverage).

Burns

N/A

No burn mechanism is currently active

Ownership

Raise History

4 rounds · $48.7m total

Date	Amount	Round	Valuation
Oct 12, 2020	$25m	Strategic	—
Jul 15, 2020	$3m	Private token sale	—
Jul 08, 2020	$4.5m	Private token sale	—
Nov 30, 2017	$16.2m	ICO	—

Fundraising: Token Sale
Equity Revenue Capture: No
Associated Entities: DAOLabsParent / Holdings Co
IP & Brand: Labs, Parent / Holdings Co
Domain: Labs, Parent / Holdings Co