Aave Chan Initiative Announces Exit from DAO Following Governance Dispute Over Funding Package

The Aave Chan Initiative, a prominent governance delegate and service provider within the Aave decentralized finance ecosystem, has announced its departure from the Aave DAO following a contentious governance battle over funding. ACI founder Marc Zeller stated the organization will wind down operations over four months while fulfilling existing commitments before transferring infrastructure to the DAO or successor providers. The exit follows a closely contested Temp Check vote on the Aave Will Win proposal, which seeks to allocate up to $42.5 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE tokens to Aave Labs under a DAO-funded development model. Thesnapshot vote passed with 52.58% support against 42% opposition, with ACI previously questioning the funding package size and the inclusion of AAVE tokens carrying voting power. ACI alleged in its statement that the proposal was 'decided by Labs-linked addresses voting on their own budget,' arguing that an environment where major budget recipients hold undisclosed voting power creates conflicts of interest. The organization plans to submit a direct Aave Improvement Proposal to cancel its GHO funding stream and transfer payments to the treasury. Aave currently holds $26.51 billion in total value locked, representing approximately one-third of the $93 billion DeFi sector. The governance dispute highlights ongoing tensions between independent service providers and protocol development teams in decentralized finance governance structures.