Key facts
- AAVE price increased by 8% on Friday, reaching a session high of $187.50.
- Aave Labs proposed creating a foundation to hold protocol intellectual property and trademarks.
- The foundation would be controlled by the Aave DAO, with tokenholders retaining governance decisions.
- Aave founder Stani Kulechov stated the plan aims to unify Aave's IP under the AAVE asset.
- The proposal requires further Aave governance process approvals, including Snapshot and AIPs.
- Short liquidations totaled approximately $350,000 across three exchanges in one hour following the news.
The price of AAVE, the native token of the Aave decentralized finance protocol, surged 8% on Friday to briefly touch $187.50. This price jump followed the release of a proposal by Aave Labs aimed at transferring the protocol's intellectual property (IP) and trademarks to a new foundation controlled by the Aave Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).
Aave founder Stani Kulechov stated that the proposal's objective is to consolidate Aave's IP under the AAVE asset, thereby strengthening the protocol as part of the broader "Aave Will Win" framework. The proposed entity, a memberless Cayman Islands foundation company, would hold the Aave trademark and related IP rights. However, the foundation would not possess any voting or veto power in the protocol's governance; decisions regarding listings, parameter changes, budgets, and framework modifications would remain with AAVE tokenholders.
Further governance proposals and approvals would be necessary for the actual transfer of trademarks, domains, and the codebase. Initially, the DAO would cover incorporation and legal fees. The DAO would also have the authority to appoint or remove foundation directors through Aave Improvement Proposals (AIPs) and would have binding influence over major constitutional changes, IP sales, restructuring, and future dissolution of the entity. The foundation would be required to release quarterly reports on its assets, expenditures, and legal proceedings.
This initiative comes amid other recent developments for the protocol, including the expansion of Aave V4 on Base, which introduced a tokenized equities lending market. The AAVE token's rally saw approximately $350,000 in short liquidations across three major exchanges within a single hour. Discussions are also underway regarding a permanent AAVE burn mechanism as part of Aavenomics 3.0, following recent SEC guidance on crypto buybacks.