Kraken Bids $385M for a Piece of Aave — Stani Kulechov Says the DeFi Giant Isn't Selling at a 70% Discount

What Happened

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, is in talks to acquire a 15% stake in DeFi lender Aave at a valuation of roughly $385 million. Under the terms reported on June 25, Kraken would put up 35,000 ether — worth tens of millions of dollars — in exchange for 250,000 AAVE tokens and a 15% common-equity slice of Aave Group. The talks were first reported by CoinDesk and quickly picked up by The Block and BeInCrypto.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov did not take the framing quietly. He flatly rejected the idea that the protocol is on the block, saying AAVE 'isn't for sale at a 70% discount.' In Kulechov's telling, the numbers floated in the report undervalue one of the largest lending protocols in crypto, which has spent the past year clawing back market share and revenue.

The Buyback Counterpunch

Rather than entertain a discounted equity sale, Kulechov pointed to Aave's own capital-return machine. He confirmed that automated AAVE buybacks are running under the protocol's revamped tokenomics. The 'Aave Will Win' proposal — the centerpiece of the new Aavenomics era — redirects 100% of protocol and Aave-branded product revenue back to the DAO and AAVE token holders, funneling cash into systematic buybacks rather than dispersing it elsewhere.

The message to the market is straightforward: Aave's treasury would rather buy its own token than sell equity cheaply to an exchange. Buybacks tighten supply and tie the protocol's growing fee revenue directly to token value, a pitch Kulechov has been making for months as Aavenomics rolled out.

Why It Matters

The episode captures a widening tension in crypto: centralized exchanges hunting for a foothold in DeFi, and DeFi communities wary of handing over equity and governance influence on the cheap. For Payward, a stake in Aave would be a diversification play ahead of a long-rumored public listing, giving Kraken exposure to on-chain lending beyond its core trading business.

For AAVE holders, the standoff is a referendum on how the protocol values itself. A 15% sale at $385 million implies one number; Kulechov's buyback-first stance implies a much higher one. Whether the two sides find middle ground — or whether the talks collapse entirely — the public rejection signals that Aave intends to negotiate from strength, not desperation.

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