"DeFi will win!" Aave founder celebrates the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ending a four-year investigation

On December 16, top DeFi and cryptocurrency lending platform Aave announced that U.S. regulators have ended a four-year-long investigation into the protocol.

Aave CEO and founder Stani Kulechov noted that the investigation had drained resources from him and his team.Additionally,

“In recent years, DeFi has faced unfair regulatory pressure. We are pleased to be free from these constraints and to enter a new era where developers can truly build the future of finance. DeFi will ultimately prevail.”

This makes it the second DeFi protocol, after Uniswap Labs, to be exempted from scrutiny by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Internal Struggles

Although the details of the Aave investigation have not been made public, it may be related to allegations of “operating an unregistered exchange or broker-dealer” brought against Uniswap and other cryptocurrency platforms.

However, the timing is indeed questionable.

According to a letter from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the regulator ended the investigation and informed the investigation team of the results in mid-August.

However, Kulechov of Aave did not announce this relief measure until four months later. Coincidentally, this announcement came at a time when the CEO was under close scrutiny from the community for allegedly harming the value growth of the AAVE token.

Criticsclaimthat the CEO and Aave Labs misappropriated about $10 million from the DAO’s potential revenue, which could have been used to buy back AAVE tokens.

In fact, a supporter of Kulechovclaimedthat if sued, the DAO would not be able to afford the litigation costs at all. This essentially hints at who the ultimate decision-maker of the protocol is, and further reveals internal power struggles.

Whether the SEC update was intended to shift the focus of the debate and quell strong opposition from the community remains uncertain.

Aave’s 2026 Plan

Nevertheless, Aave Labs and its founder have continued to make significant contributions to the development of the Aave protocol and have set ambitious goals.Roadmapfor 2026.

The top priorities are tokenization through Horizon, expanding adoption using the Aave app, and utilizing Aave V4 with unified liquidity.

As of press time, Aave remains the number one lending protocol, with fees exceeding $800 million this year, accounting for 52% of the entire lending market.

Nevertheless, the AAVE token fell by about 4% after the update and further dropped to $183 as of press time.

Despite the sell-off, Binance altcoinnet flowdata shows that AAVE is one of the tokens being withdrawn from the platform, indicating a wave of accumulation as the price fell below $200.

Final Thoughts

• The founder of Aave stated that after the SEC ended its four-year-long investigation, the protocol can now focus on scaling up development.
• Despite the recent sell-off of AAVE tokens, there is still a continuous accumulation trend of AAVE tokens on the Binance platform.