Unchained Stani Kulechov on Why Aave Labs Is Putting Itself at the Mercy of the DAO
Feb 20, 2026
Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave Labs and DeFi builder behind the Aave protocol, outlines the “Aave Will Win” plan to funnel product revenue to the DAO. He breaks down why Labs wants the DAO to set its budget, the architecture and goals of Aave v4, and plans for a neutral foundation to protect brand and contributors.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
All Revenue To Token-Centric Treasury
- Aave Labs proposes routing 100% of product-level revenue to the Aave DAO to create a token-centric value capture model.
- That removes dual-model uncertainty and expands revenue capture for AAVE token holders.
V4's Hubs-and-Spokes Unlocks Scale
- Aave V4 introduces a modular hubs-and-spokes architecture that concentrates liquidity while isolating risk into custom spokes.
- V4 also adds a reinvestment feature to deploy pool float into lower-risk yield opportunities, improving capital efficiency.
Enable Third-Party Spokes For Bootstrapping
- Build modular, composable primitives so third-party developers can request liquidity and innovate without issuing tokens.
- Use credit lines from hubs to bootstrap promising spokes and scale proven use cases.