The leading lending protocol Aave has recently fallen into governance turmoil. The trigger for the situation was the adjustment of the front-end exchange function's partner — the fee flow was redirected from the Aave DAO treasury to Aave Labs, raising concerns within the community about this operational process.

The real escalation of the conflict is over the issue of brand asset control. The former CTO proposed a plan to hand over brand management rights to AAVE token holders for voting, which received majority support, but project founder Stani expressed opposition. Amid the differences in stance, the opposing emotions between the two sides continued to ferment. The market response was also very direct— the second largest whale holder chose to cut losses, liquidating 230,000 AAVE in one go, resulting in a paper loss of $13.45 million.

This stands in stark contrast to market expectations two weeks ago. At that time, Aave was widely favored by institutions and classified as a "real value asset." Now, however, it has fallen into a whirlpool of public opinion due to a governance crisis, transforming from an institutional darling into a focal point of controversy. This also reminds investors that the risks posed by governance issues in the DeFi ecosystem are often underestimated. The positions of token holders, the voice of developers, and the transparency of fee distribution—these details ultimately reflect in market pricing.