Stani Kulechov, the founder of Aave, is getting a lot of flak for buying $10 million worth of AAVE before a major DAO vote. Critics are worried about the concentration of voting power.
People in the crypto world are questioning Aave creator Stani Kulechov’s recent $10 million purchase of AAVE coins. Some say he used it to increase his vote power in a critical governance proposal.
Robert Mullins, a decentralised finance (DeFi) analyst and liquidity specialist, wrote on X on Wednesday that the purchase was aimed to give Kulechov more “voting power” so he could vote for a proposal that would go against the best interests of the token holders.
“This is a clear example of tokens not being able to stop governance attacks,” he continued.
Sisyphus, a well-known crypto user, agreed with such worries and said that Kulechov might have sold “millions of dollars” worth of Aave AAVE$149.16 tokens between 2021 and 2025. He questioned the economic reasons for the decision.
The dispute arises from disagreements among Aave token holders regarding the allocation of governance authority within one of DeFi’s most significant protocols. Critics say that buying a lot of tokens can have a big effect on the outcomes of votes on important proposals. The disagreement has brought back worries about whether token-based governance does a good job of protecting minority holders when founders or early insiders still have a lot of economic power.
Voting power concentration raises DAO governance concerns
The proposal asks if AAVE token holders should get back control of domains, social media profiles, and intellectual property through a legal structure administered by a DAO.
Ernesto Boado, the former CTO of Aave Labs and the person who wrote the proposal, alleged that the vote went up without his permission and shattered the confidence of the community.
Samuel McCulloch from USD.ai talked about how voting power is concentrated. He called the Aave vote “silly” in an X post and said that a tiny number of big holders made up nearly half of the overall voting weight.
According to snapshot data from the Aave DAO, the three voters with the most votes control more than 58% of the total vote. The top voter, 0xEA0C…6B5A, has 27.06% of the voting power (333k AAVE), and the second-largest voter, aci.eth, has 18.53% (228k AAVE).