Aave founder Stani Kulechov on Thursday dismissed a report suggesting Kraken is negotiating a stake in the largest decentralized lending protocol. "First off, there is NO WAY we'd sell AAVE at a 70% discount lol," Kulechov wrote on X.
The dispute centers on whether Aave's development team would engage in a token sale well below market rates. At the time of Kulechov's statement, AAVE traded around $87.72. A 70% haircut would imply a price near $26, raising questions about why the team would accept such terms.
Kulechov's denial leaves two possibilities open: either no such talks with Kraken existed, or they occurred on terms he found acceptable. He did not directly confirm or deny whether Kraken approached Aave about investment at all, only that any deal would not involve severe underpricing.
Selling protocol treasury assets or founder holdings typically requires board-level or governance sign-off. Major token sales can move markets and signal distress, both risks Aave's leadership would likely avoid. For a protocol managing billions in deposited assets, even speculation about forced liquidations carries weight with depositors and borrowers.
The timing matters because investor interest in lending protocols has sharpened after years of turbulence in crypto credit markets. Kraken's potential interest, if real, would reflect broader appetite from established exchanges to own pieces of DeFi infrastructure. But a 70% discount would cheapen that signal, suggesting either poor negotiating position or a fabricated claim designed to generate headlines.