A dispute over who controls the brand and online presence of Aave, a decentralized lending platform, has spilled over into governance and procedures, knocking the AAVE token down significantly, down 11% in the past 24 hours.
The flash point is a governance discussion post by BGD Labs co-founder Ernesto Boado, who argues that AAVE holders should take formal control of Aave’s “brand assets” such as domains, social handles, naming rights and other gateways. BGD Labs is a group founded by three members of the community that emerged in 2022.
Leaving these assets in the hands of any third party creates a structural imbalance, according to Boado. Even if a contributor acts in good faith today, unilateral control over aave.com and the main social media accounts can be used to steer narratives, product distribution and monetization in ways that The DAO cannot meaningfully control, Boado said.
Boado’s proposal is framed as an ownership issue first and a product debate second. It does not say that Aave Labs should not build the interface or ship products. It argues that the DAO should own the core identity and access points and then decide how those assets can be used, including whether a party is allowed to run them under enforced terms.
The debate quickly turned into procedural drama.
After several days of discussion, Aave founder Stani Kulechov moved the proposal to a Snapshot vote.
Boado objected, saying that the proposal was not made in the spirit he intended. He said Aave Labs rushed it to a vote, put his name on it and did it without notifying him. In his words, it broke trust and cut short a discussion that produced meaningful new points.
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Kulechov responded, saying the process followed established governance norms.
In a post on X, Kulechov said the proposal had been discussed for about five days — claiming that was a typical window before going to a Snapshot vote — and adhered to Aave’s governance framework.
He added that the DAO has brought proposals to a vote in the past, even when the original authors were third parties.
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The result of the vote will not just settle an Aave argument. It will test a broader DeFi excitement of whether DAOs can own smart contracts onchain, but control over tokens and interfaces still tends to sit offchain, where governance is slower, rights are more unclear and incentives can diverge.
