Aave, one of the well-established projects of the DeFi world, has been on the agenda with a serious management crisis recently. BGD Labs, one of the important service providers of the ecosystem, announced that it will leave the project by the beginning of April. This development reignited the debate on the balance of power within the Aave DAO, which has grown with its claim of decentralization.
In its statement, BGD Labs stated that the concentration of power within the ecosystem was behind the separation decision. The company argued that Aave Labs in particular was seeking to establish increasingly centralized control. The statement claimed that Aave Labs forced all contributors to act in line with its vision and that existing expertise was not taken into account sufficiently.
V3–V4 Voltage and Centrality Debate
BGD Labs played a key role in the development of the V3 version, one of the most critical technical components of the Aave ecosystem. The team, which has been managing maintenance and support processes since 2022, hinted that the marketing of the new version, V4, may be behind the criticism of V3. The noteworthy point is that V4 is largely developed by Aave Labs.
These claims have revived centrality debates in the DeFi community. Because Aave Labs’ influence on critical elements such as brand rights and voting power is contrary to the spirit of the DAO model. Some people within the project think that this situation may weaken the governance mechanism in the long term.
A calmer tone prevails on the Aave Labs front. Stani Kulechov, the founder of the project, said in his statement to the community that the BGD separation will not shake the ecosystem. Kulechov stated that they could undertake V3 maintenance if necessary and that their security-oriented cooperation with BGD could continue if the DAO deems it appropriate.
Past Crises and Market Reaction
In fact, the management crisis at Aave is not new. Late last year, the Aave Chan Initiative, led by Marc Zeller, accused Aave Labs of diverting the DAO’s revenue streams in its favor. These allegations shook investor confidence and led to a sharp decline in the AAVE token price.
Similarly, Evgeny Gaevoy, founder of Wintermute, a crypto market maker, also commented on the latest developments. Gaevoy stated that Kulechov may be consolidating power, but internal divisions could put pressure on the token price.
As a matter of fact, after the latest statements, the AAVE price decreased by approximately 8 percent for a short time. Even though there is a partial recovery, the persistence of management uncertainty pushes market players to be cautious. Considering that similar crises in the DeFi ecosystem have previously been experienced in projects such as MakerDAO and Uniswap, governance debates continue to be one of the chronic problems of the sector.
Another notable development at this point is the increasing calls for the redesign of DAO structures in DeFi projects. Recently, some protocols have begun to discuss more transparent and auditable hybrid models in governance. According to experts, the crisis in Aave may accelerate this transformation.
