CryptoCurrency
AAVE whale crashes token 10% amid ‘disgraceful’ governance vote
In a move branded “disgraceful” and a “hostile takeover attempt,” Aave Labs has unilaterally initiated a vote on the recent governance debate around DAO ownership of brand assets.
The vote came hours after $38 million of Aave’s governance token was dumped on-chain, crashing AAVE’s price by 10%.
Kicked off by longtime Aave contributor Ernesto Boado of BGD Labs last Tuesday, the ongoing discussion runs to over 100 comments.
It began in response to the discovery of Aave Labs’ capture of an existing DAO revenue source.
A Snapshot proposal was set up by aavelabs.eth in the early hours of Monday (UTC) with voting set to begin 24 hours later and conclude on December 26.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov announced the vote via a post on X.
Read more: Aave Labs v DAO: Who controls the money — and the brand?
Fighting dirty
Boado isn’t happy; he says the move “breaks all types of trust of the community.”
The discussion, he claims, was escalated to Snapshot without his being consulted. Citing the fact that discussion remains ongoing, he recommends tokenholders abstain from the vote.
Responding to criticism on X, Kulechov defended the move, saying five days of discussion is typical before moving to Snapshot. He also points to the existing precedent of service providers escalating discussions presented by third parties to a vote.
He concluded by saying, “people are tired of this discussion… see you at the polls, whatever the outcome will be.”
Kulechov previously made clear his plans to vote against the proposal, presumably using the $10 million of Aave recently bought to demonstrate “alignment,” on top of his existing holdings.
Read more: Aave Labs faces backlash over CoW Swap integration
Marc Zeller, of the Aave Chan Initiative delegation, argued that the “typical” five days is insufficient for “a high-stakes, off-chain ownership question, especially during the holidays and with unresolved direct questions.”
He also stresses “many delegates and token holders are still asking for clear, concrete answers that have not been provided.”
“What started as a push for clarity” has turned into “a hostile takeover attempt by Labs,” he says.
“Ultimately, when the DAO is not respected and legitimate concerns from token holders are ignored, rational actors switch to the most efficient way to vote: with their bags.”
AAVE whale dumps bags
In the hours preceding the Snapshot vote’s publication, an AAVE whale sold its entire stack.
As well as staked ether (stETH) and wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), the whale unloaded $38 million of Aave’s governance token, triggering a 10% price drop from $176 to $159.
The wallet still holds around $48 million in stETH and WBTC.
Read more: Is Aave’s ‘Balance Protection’ backed by Relm — an FTX insurer?
The sum is greater than the grand total of Aave DAO’s token buyback programme, according to TokenLogic’s dashboard. The DAO began buybacks in April and has spent $33 million on 143,415 tokens, now worth $23 million.
Odds on a Polymarket bet on whether Aave’s token alignment proposal would pass have yo-yo’d in recent days.
After fluctuating between 60% and 70% for much of last week, odds dropped suddenly on Saturday, to below 20%.
They rebounded over the course of Sunday before dropping again following initiation of the Snapshot vote, currently sitting at 30%.
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