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.
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.
