Aave founder rejects discounted Kraken deal

• Aave founder Stani Kulechov rejected claims that Aave would sell AAVE tokens to Kraken at a roughly 70% discount.
• Kulechov said all protocol revenue flows to the Aave DAO and confirmed plans for an automated AAVE buyback mechanism.
• Grayscale said AAVE remains undervalued under its valuation model if tokenised assets continue expanding in decentralised finance.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov rejected reports that Aave would sell AAVE (CRYPTO:AAVE) tokens to Kraken at a discount of about 70%, saying there was "no way" such a transaction would occur.

Kulechov said Aave Labs holds an allocation of AAVE tokens that has attracted interest from strategic partners, but stressed this is separate from the Aave DAO, which controls the protocol's governance and economics.

“There is no way Aave would sell AAVE at a 70% discount,” Kulechov said.

Kulechov added that all revenue generated by the Aave Protocol, the GHO stablecoin, Aave App, Aave Pro and swap-related products now flows to the Aave DAO, with annualised protocol revenue currently standing at about US$134 million.

He also said the team is developing Aavenomics 3.0, which is intended to introduce an automated, non-discretionary AAVE buyback mechanism, although no launch date or funding details were disclosed.

Separately, Grayscale Research recently estimated AAVE has a model-based fair value of between US$80 and US$100 based on projected 2026 revenue, while suggesting the token could reach about US$175 if tokenised real-world assets significantly expand within decentralised finance.

AAVE rose to an intraday high of US$87.50 following Kulechov's comments before easing to around US$82, as investors continued assessing the protocol's governance changes, revenue model and long-term growth strategy.

At the time of reporting, Aave price was $82.13.