A report dropped on June 25 claiming Kraken was in talks to buy a 15% stake in Aave Group for roughly $71 million. The implied valuation, somewhere between $385 million and $473 million, would represent a steep haircut from where the market has previously priced the protocol. Aave founder Stani Kulechov had thoughts, and he shared them publicly.

Kulechov went on social media to flatly deny the core claims, saying no AAVE tokens were being sold at a 70% discount and that the reported figures were simply inaccurate.

What Kulechov actually said

The distinction Kulechov drew matters more than it might appear on the surface. He clarified that any revenues flowing from the Aave protocol and its GHO stablecoin go directly to the Aave DAO, not to Aave Labs, the commercial entity he heads.

He did acknowledge that discussions are ongoing around Aave Labs’ own AAVE holdings, framed around potential long-term partnerships. That’s a different conversation from selling protocol tokens at a discount, but it’s also not nothing.

Kraken already has skin in the game regardless. The exchange’s DeFi Earn product is currently integrated with Aave’s protocol, meaning the two companies have an existing commercial relationship.

Kulechov also used the moment to preview Aavenomics 3.0, an upcoming update that will introduce an automated buyback mechanism for the protocol. The protocol is generating roughly $134 million in annualized revenue as of June 2026. Selling a meaningful stake at a valuation that implies a fraction of that figure would be an unusual move.

Why the valuation gap is the real story

Here’s the thing about the $385 million to $473 million valuation range implied by the reported deal: it sits awkwardly against Aave’s operational metrics. A protocol doing $134 million in annual revenue trading at roughly three times that figure would be priced like a distressed asset, not a market leader.

That’s partly why Kulechov’s denial landed with some force. The framing of a 70% discount implies either that the market has dramatically re-rated Aave, or that the report had the terms wrong. Kulechov is arguing for the latter.

The broader context here is a recurring tension in DeFi between the decentralized protocols that hold the assets and generate the revenues, and the commercial entities built around them. Aave Labs is a separate organization from the Aave DAO, and how value flows between those two structures is genuinely complicated.

What investors should watch

For anyone holding AAVE or watching the protocol, a few things are worth tracking. First, the Aavenomics 3.0 rollout. An automated buyback mechanism is a direct return of value to token holders, and Kulechov flagging it in the context of this dispute suggests it’s meant to signal protocol health.

Second, the governance question. If Aave Labs does reach any kind of formal arrangement with Kraken involving its own AAVE holdings, the Aave DAO community will need to process what that means for protocol independence.

Third, the revenue picture. At $134 million in annualized revenue, Aave is generating real cash flows. Any deal that gets done at terms implying a fraction of that revenue figure would warrant serious scrutiny from the community.