Co-founder of Aave Labs, Stani Kulechov, in an interview with CoinDesk commented on recent governance conflicts within the protocol and shared his views on the future of the DeFi sector. He considers the current team reshuffles and disputes a natural stage in the network’s development.
In recent months, the Aave community has been actively debating the project’s development path. Some users wish to maintain an open platform under the control of token holders. Others warn of a shift towards a model where key contributors gain more power and revenue.
The debates intensified over the distribution of fees. In February, Aave Labs proposed directing all revenue from branded products to the DAO treasury. The initiative drew criticism, with community members seeing it as blurring the lines between independent voting and the influence of lead developers.
Due to strategic disagreements, two key development teams — BGD Labs and Aave Chain Initiative — left the project. Kulechov does not see this as a problem. He described the reshuffles as a normal cycle, noting that replacing global financial infrastructure always takes time.
Amid the governance crisis, Aave is preparing to launch the fourth version of the protocol. The development of v4 has taken about two years. The update will introduce a modular architecture, simplifying the creation of new applications on the platform, enhancing capital efficiency, and expanding the list of available assets. The code is undergoing final security checks.
Kulechov dismissed rumors of stagnation in the DeFi sector. He pointed to tens of billions of dollars still locked in smart contracts. In his view, the source of growth is simply changing. The driver of the next phase will not be cryptocurrency projects but the real economy, including tokenization of assets and institutional lending.
The protocol’s creator is confident that DeFi will not quickly eliminate traditional finance. Decentralized networks will become the basic infrastructure and seamlessly integrate into the operations of classic banks and fintech platforms.
In February, Aave was the first in the decentralized finance industry to issue loans worth $1 trillion.