Aave Labs posted a governance proposal on Feb. 12 asking tokenholders to endorse a strategic bundle that may direct 100% of Aave-branded product income to the DAO treasury, formalize model safety, and middle the roadmap on Aave V4.
The initiative was named the “Aave Will Win Framework.”
The proposal hasn’t been carried out but, as an early governance temperature verify. But, the general public framing is unambiguous: “We imagine there is no higher time to align behind a token-centric imaginative and prescient and place Aave to win over the following decade.”
That timing language is the true story.
Aave is not simply restructuring its economics. As an alternative, it’s constructing as if the US enforcement overhang that outlined 2022 via 2024 is shrinking, and worth accrual to tokenholders is protected to pursue once more.
The proposal explicitly references “regulatory readability rising in sure markets,” and the numbers recommend that evaluation is not simply vibes.
SEC crypto enforcement fell 60% in 2025 in contrast with 2024, dropping from 33 actions to 13, per Cornerstone Analysis. That decline coincides with the primary yr underneath SEC Chair Paul Atkins.
Moreover, the SEC’s 2026 examination priorities positioned much less emphasis on crypto than in prior years, and the company voluntarily dismissed its Binance lawsuit with prejudice, a transfer that explicitly hyperlinks to the President Donald Trump administration’s coverage stance.
The DOJ additionally signaled a softer posture, with a memo that scaled again sure crypto-platform enforcement and disbanded the nationwide crypto enforcement group.
Aave’s transfer reads like pricing in a multi-year window, when enforcement danger is decrease, and protocols can compete like companies once more with out instantly triggering securities-tripwire fears. This contains budgets, model safety, and product income funnels.
That is larger than one proposal. It is a regime-shift thesis taking part in out throughout DeFi.
Constructing like a enterprise, however on-chain
The Aave framework goes past tokenomics. It defines a complete working mannequin.
If accredited, the DAO would obtain product revenues from aave.com interface charges, the cell app, card merchandise, Aave Professional, Aave Package, Aave Horizon, and even an AAVE exchange-traded product line merchandise.
Aave claims the swap integration on aave.com generates roughly $10 million in annualized income that may stream to the DAO underneath the framework. It additionally states that Aave V3 generates over $100 million in annualized income.
These numbers place the DAO as greater than a governance wrapper, because it’s being set as much as steward a model, allocate capital, and pursue regulated product ambitions.
The proposal bundles worth seize with model and IP safety, operational funding, and a quicker execution path than governance by committee would permit.
Aave says it has been self-funding product improvement and authorized work, together with SEC protection, and now needs to align behind a token-centric mannequin.
The framing is express: construct the DAO to perform as an entity that may compete institutionally, not simply in a decentralized method.
That shift issues as a result of, when enforcement is intense, protocols keep away from something that seems to be revenue distribution.
When enforcement cools, the chance price of governance-only tokens turns into more durable to defend, particularly with establishments looming as customers. Aave is betting the enforcement window has opened huge sufficient to make worth accrual a function, not a legal responsibility.
Worth accrual is again
Aave is not alone. Uniswap is pursuing the same playbook.
The UNIfication proposal goals to activate protocol charges and burn UNI, amongst different ecosystem modifications.
DefiLlama’s Uniswap V2 methodology reveals that since Dec. 28, 2025, 17% of Ethereum charges have been allotted to UNI buybacks and burns. Tokenholder worth accrual is embedded instantly into the protocol’s reside design and operations.
Uniswap can also be pursuing a broader fee-and-burn roadmap throughout variations over time.
Different protocols already present measurable worth accrual. DefiLlama tracks “holders income” throughout protocols resembling Pendle, illustrating that value-capture mechanisms are normalized throughout components of DeFi.
The information infrastructure exists to measure charges, income, and tokenholder-directed flows, which makes the shift from “governance token with unclear worth” to “token with measurable seize” legible to establishments.
The sample is obvious: protocols that averted payment switches or worth routing throughout the enforcement-heavy years are reopening these levers. The calculus modified as a result of the chance profile modified.
What the regime shift alerts
Again to constructing like a enterprise, however on-chain. Aave’s proposal would not learn like a DAO governance train. It reads like an organization outlining its income mannequin, model technique, and institutional roadmap.
The distinction is that the “firm” is on-chain, the finances flows to a treasury ruled by tokenholders, and the distribution mechanism runs via good contracts. Nonetheless, the operational logic is acquainted: seize worth, allocate sources, defend IP, and compete for market share.
That sort of readability was radioactive when the SEC was treating most tokens as unregistered securities. Now it is being pitched as a aggressive benefit.
Regime shift triggers value-accrual experiments. When the enforcement posture shifts, the chance set for protocol design shifts as effectively.
The underlying expertise did not change. The regulatory surroundings did, and that unlocks design area.
Protocols can now experiment with payment switches, treasury routing, buybacks, burns, and distribution mechanisms that have been too legally dangerous to implement when each token allocation was underneath scrutiny.
The subsequent struggle is legitimacy alongside decentralization. Aave bundles model and IP safety right into a single bundle alongside token-centric alignment. That’s a guess that the DAO should function as a legible entity able to stewarding a model and a product suite, functioning as a coherent group with accountable possession over its ecosystem.
The proposal positions the DAO to work together with regulated markets, resembling exchange-traded merchandise, institutional custody, and compliance-wrapped interfaces. On the identical time, it maintains on-chain economics.
That pressure between decentralization and institutional legibility is the brand new frontier.
| Protocol | Mechanism (treasury routing / buyback+burn / staker distribution) | Standing (proposed vs lively) + date | Quant hook (what you may cite) | Information supply |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aave | Treasury routing — “100% of Aave-branded product income → Aave DAO treasury” (incl. aave.com charges, App, Card, Professional, Package, Horizon, AAVE ETP) | Proposed (governance TEMP CHECK) — Feb 12, 2026 | Swap integration on aave.com “~$10M annualized income”; “Aave V3 already generates over $100M in annualized income” | Aave governance temp verify. (Aave) |
| Uniswap V2 | Buyback+burn — DefiLlama methodology: protocol routes 17% of charges (Ethereum) to purchase again & burn UNI | Energetic — since Dec 28, 2025 (per DefiLlama methodology be aware) | “From 28 Dec 2025, 17% (0% earlier than) charges on Ethereum shared to purchase again and burn UNI” | DefiLlama Uniswap V2 methodology part. (DeFi Llama) |
| Uniswap (UNIfication roadmap) | Roadmap to protocol charges + UNI burn (broader rollout intent throughout variations over time) | Proposed / governance roadmap — Nov 2025 (UNIfication put up) | Explicitly proposes: activate protocol charges → burn UNI, plus a retroactive burn of 100M UNI; rollout begins with v2 + a set of v3 swimming pools representing ~80–95% of LP charges on Ethereum mainnet | Uniswap “UNIfication” put up. (Uniswap Labs) |
| Pendle | Tokenholder-directed worth (DefiLlama “Holders Income” — i.e., worth routed to tokenholders by way of burn/distribution mechanisms) | Energetic (ongoing) | Holders Income 30d: $893,526; Holders Income (annualized): ~$10.9M | DefiLlama Pendle charges/income web page + “Holders Income” definition. (DeFi Llama) |
What might derail this
Aave’s framework stays a governance proposal awaiting implementation. Legislative optionality exists, however the coverage structure remains to be growing.
But, if enforcement resurges, protocols might pause worth accrual, route extra via foundations or offshore buildings, or restrict US publicity.
Technical and aggressive dangers additionally matter. If Aave’s product income projections do not materialize, or if rivals supply higher phrases by avoiding tokenholder routing, the framework’s attraction diminishes.
If the regulatory surroundings shifts once more and the SEC or DOJ treats fee-routing buildings as securities violations, your complete value-accrual thesis collapses again into danger mitigation mode.
Three ahead eventualities
One potential state of affairs transferring ahead is a “sturdy thaw.”
If the present posture persists, count on extra DAOs to flip payment switches, formalize budgets, and pursue US-compliant product wrappers. Key indicators to observe are the decline or flatlining of SEC crypto actions, incremental rulemaking, and extra protocols copying the “protocol utilization → token burn or treasury” mannequin.
One other state of affairs is readability with out consolation. Legal guidelines transfer, however enforcement stays selective. Protocols engineer token-centric fashions to keep away from “dividend optics,” extra treasury routing, buybacks, and burns versus direct payouts.
Matters to observe are progress or stalls on payments like CLARITY and company steering particulars.
Lastly, a whipsaw can also be a probable state of affairs. Political or authorized backlash, or high-profile protocol failures, set off a resurgence in enforcement.
Protocols pause worth accrual, route extra via foundations or offshore, or restrict US publicity.
Even a friendlier SEC nonetheless says “fraud is fraud,” and a significant scandal might reset the tolerance for tokenholder-directed income.
What’s at stake
Aave’s proposal would not simply ask tokenholders to endorse a finances. It asks them to endorse a thesis on what the following decade will appear like: protocols competing as companies, worth accruing to tokens, and DAOs functioning as establishments.
That thesis will depend on the US regulatory surroundings remaining extra favorable than it was in 2022 via 2024.
The enforcement information, examination priorities, and dismissed circumstances recommend that the guess is rational at the moment. Whether or not it holds for a decade is the open query.
Protocols are repricing themselves in anticipation of a window they imagine is open. How lengthy it stays open, and whether or not different jurisdictions observe or diverge, will decide whether or not this wave of value-accrual experiments turns into the brand new regular or one other chapter in DeFi’s regulatory whiplash.