Marc Zeller Challenges Aave Labs’ Record in Detailed Transparency Report

The competing reports come as the Aave DAO prepares to consider the “Aave Will Win” proposal, which would allocate up to $51 million in new funding to Aave Labs and formalize a broader roadmap centered on Aave V4 and related products.

Zeller’s report, published Wednesday, frames its analysis around three questions: what Aave Labs delivered, what it cost, and what the return was. He states that Aave Labs has received approximately $86 million in total capitalization, including $16.2 million from the 2017 Ethlend initial coin offering ( ICO), $32.5 million from venture capital rounds, $31.93 million in direct DAO payments and roughly $5.5 million in swap-related fees.

He also notes that the founding team retained 23% of the original LEND token supply, which later migrated to AAVE. The audit thoroughly scrutinizes several product initiatives beyond the core protocol, including Horizon, a real-world asset lending market launched in August 2025. Zeller argues that while Horizon reached significant total value locked (TVL) figures, its cumulative DAO revenue stands at roughly $216,000 against reported incentive and maintenance costs exceeding $5 million since launch.

He characterizes the ratio as a negative return for the DAO. In addition, Zeller highlights governance participation metrics, multisig activity, and voting patterns, alleging that a concentrated cluster of voting power influenced key proposals, including Horizon and a conflict-of-interest framework vote. He contends that Aave Labs’ forum and onchain governance activity trails other service providers, while also questioning the bundling of multiple initiatives into a single vote under the Aave Will Win proposal.

Aave Labs Defends Decade of Development

Aave Labs’ own contributions report, published seven hours before Zeller’s audit, presents a sharply different narrative. The report traces the protocol’s history from the 2017 Ethlend ICO through Aave V1, V2 and V3, crediting Aave Labs with designing and delivering core architectural innovations such as pooled liquidity, Flash Loans, the Safety Module, and Efficiency Mode (eMode).

According to Aave Labs, the technical foundation enabling today’s revenue — including V3’s multi-chain architecture and the original eMode design — was conceived and implemented prior to the onboarding of most DAO service providers. The report emphasizes that GHO, the protocol’s native stablecoin launched in 2023, has generated more than $22 million in revenue for the DAO since inception.

The company also details its role in developing and maintaining the aave.com frontend, managing marketing channels, defending trademarks, organizing community events and operating user support infrastructure. It states that public repositories alone include more than 570,000 lines of code, nearly 12,000 commits, and over 4,300 pull requests, with additional private repositories supporting products such as the Aave App and V4.

On revenue attribution, Aave Labs argues that protocol growth has been a cumulative effort involving core architecture, subsequent upgrades, risk calibration, and governance decisions by multiple contributors. It cautions against using governance post counts as a proxy for work performed, noting that major protocol upgrades require years of research and development before appearing as a single proposal.

The dispute has unfolded against the backdrop of BGD Labs’ announcement that it will step away from its service provider role effective April 1, 2026. Zeller cites BGD’s departure as evidence of structural tensions, while Aave Labs has described V4 as a necessary architectural evolution designed to address long-term scalability and revenue diversification beyond ETH-driven market cycles.

As tokenholders evaluate the Aave Will Win proposal, the DAO now faces two contrasting interpretations: one emphasizing capital allocation discipline, governance transparency, and recent revenue metrics, and the other stressing foundational invention, long-term research investment, and brand stewardship since 2017.

The outcome of the upcoming vote is expected to shape not only the funding relationship between the DAO and Aave Labs but also the strategic direction of Aave’s next major protocol iteration.

FAQ ❓

• What is the dispute between Aave Labs and ACI about?
  It centers on funding, governance transparency, revenue attribution and the proposed $51 million allocation under the Aave Will Win proposal.
• How much funding has Aave Labs received from the DAO?
  According to publicly cited figures, Aave Labs has received about $31.93 million in direct DAO payments since 2022.
• What is Aave V4?
  Aave V4 is a proposed architectural overhaul featuring a unified liquidity layer, dynamic risk premiums and a redesigned liquidation engine, currently live on public testnet.
• Why does the Horizon product matter in the debate?
  Horizon’s reported revenue and incentive costs are cited by critics as a case study in return on DAO-funded initiatives.

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