Wintermute founder Evgeny Gaevoy recently clarified the market maker fund's position in the highly publicized debate surrounding the governance of AAVE, one of the largest DeFi protocols on the market. According to him, Wintermute has invested in AAVE since 2022, actively participating in the protocol's on-chain governance activities, and he himself holds AAVE Token . However, he Chia that neither Wintermute nor he personally holds any equity investment in AAVE Labs, the entity behind the development and branding of AAVE.
His announcement comes amid a heated dispute between the AAVE DAO and the AAVE Labs team over a conflict of interest. Recently, the AAVE DAO launched a key proposal to reunify ownership of the brand and the entire core distribution channel system of the project, a move XEM as a strategic step to strengthen decentralization and reduce legal risks in the next phase of development for this leading DeFi protocol. Previously, rights to the AAVE brand name, key domain names such as AAVE, and numerous social media accounts and online infrastructure were held by AAVE Labs – the company behind the development of the AAVE protocol from its early days, when the project was still called ETHLend.
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According to Evgeny Gaevoy, the core of this governance controversy lies in the issue of the accumulated value of the AAVE Token and the divergence in expectations among stakeholders. Specifically, he argues that there is still no convincing answer as to whether the future governance structure for the AAVE Front-End and brand will truly guarantee that economic value will return to Token holders. This is a key point that makes many institutional investors, including Wintermute, cautious.
He also pointed out that the proposed governance scheme lacks crucial details, particularly specific mechanisms to link business operations, brand control, and the long-term benefits of the AAVE Token. In the increasingly competitive DeFi landscape, Governance Token need not only voting rights but also a clear value model to maintain long-term community and investor confidence. Because of these ambiguities, Wintermute is expected to vote against the proposal.
