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SEC Ends Aave Probe With No Enforcement as DAO Weighs Brand Control Overhaul

Attention now turns to a proposal to place the protocol’s brand and access points inside a DAO-owned legal wrapper.

Overview

  • Aave’s founder Stani Kulechov said the SEC has closed its roughly four-year inquiry without recommending enforcement action.
  • Kulechov described the process as resource-intensive and voiced optimism about DeFi’s future, declaring that “DeFi will win.”
  • A governance proposal from BGD Labs co-founder Ernesto Boado would transfer Aave’s domains, trademark, social channels, GitHub and developer gateways to a DAO-controlled legal entity with anti-capture safeguards, with voting yet to open.
  • Market reaction to the regulatory update was subdued, with the AAVE token showing little immediate upside.
  • The resolution aligns with a 2025 pattern of eased SEC crypto actions, and Aave remains one of DeFi’s largest lenders with about $32.8 billion in assets tracked by DefiLlama.