Aave Founder Debunks Big Token Sale Rumors, Confirms Automatic Buybacks
Kulechov says the sale rumors are wrong and points to talks about an Aave Labs allocation. At the same time, he confirms Aavenomics 3.0 with automatic buybacks for AAVE.
Key Takeaways
- Aave founder Stani Kulechov debunked rumors about a token sale at a 70 percent discount.
- He confirmed talks about an AAVE allocation held by Aave Labs and said the reporting around Kraken was framed incorrectly.
- Kulechov announced Aavenomics 3.0, with automatic AAVE buybacks alongside the existing buyback program.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov has pushed back on rumors that the protocol was selling AAVE tokens at a 70 percent discount. The rumors came after a report said crypto exchange Kraken was in talks to buy about a 15 percent stake in the DeFi lender, at a valuation of $385 million. Neither Kraken nor Aave has confirmed those details. The AAVE token jumped nearly 5 percent after the news to around $82.
The Relationship Between Aave and Kraken
Kulechov stressed that the reporting was based on anonymous sources and that the framing was wrong. He did confirm that there have been talks about selling an AAVE allocation held by Aave Labs. That would build on an existing partnership: in 2025, the Aave DAO voted almost unanimously, 99.8%, to license the Aave V3 code to Kraken’s Ink Foundation. That allowed Kraken to launch a white-label lending platform on its Layer 2 network, with part of the revenue flowing back to Aave.
This partnership fits into Kraken’s broader strategy as it prepares for an IPO and recently also acquired Bitnomial, a derivatives platform with rare U.S. licenses.
Aave’s Recovery and Planned Buybacks
After the KelpDAO exploit in April, which created up to $230 million in bad debt, Aave is slowly recovering. Even though the smart contracts were not hacked, deposits fell by more than a third and are now around $12 billion.
Kulechov pointed out that Aave Labs is only a service provider for the DAO and does not receive protocol revenue. All revenue from the Aave Protocol and the GHO stablecoin goes directly to AAVE token holders through the Aave Will Win model. He also announced Aavenomics 3.0, a new phase where AAVE buybacks will happen automatically. This builds on an existing program that can spend up to $50 million per year buying back tokens.
The planned automatic buybacks could play an important role in supporting token value and investor confidence, especially after the recent setbacks.
Why This Matters for European Crypto Investors
For European investors, it is interesting to see how Aave, a leading DeFi protocol, is actively working to strengthen its ecosystem and tokenomics. The partnership with Kraken, an exchange preparing for an IPO and holding U.S. licenses, could point to broader institutional adoption. On top of that, the rollout of automatic buybacks under Aavenomics 3.0 could matter for AAVE holders in Europe, since it may affect the token’s supply and price action.
The debate over a possible Kraken deal also fits into the broader valuation question for DeFi protocols; Grayscale sees AAVE as undervalued and sets a $179 target within a year previously pointed to the combination of revenue, stablecoin growth, and institutional adoption as drivers for the token.
