Crypto exchange Kraken is in talks to buy a 15% stake in Aave, the largest decentralized lending protocol, at a $385 million valuation, according to a June 25 report from CoinDesk. The proposed deal would see Kraken’s parent, Payward, invest 35,000 ether, worth roughly $71 million, in exchange for 250,000 AAVE tokens and a common equity position in Aave Group. Within a day, Aave founder Stani Kulechov publicly disputed the report, rejecting the idea that Aave would sell tokens at a steep discount. The result is a deal that is both one of the year’s most significant exchange moves into decentralized finance and a contested one.
Decentralized finance, or DeFi, lets users borrow and lend crypto through automated smart contracts rather than through a bank or broker.
Key takeaways
- Kraken is reportedly in talks to acquire a 15% stake in Aave at a $385 million valuation, structured as 35,000 ETH for 250,000 AAVE tokens and equity in Aave Group.
- The deal, worth about $71 million, would be the first in a series aimed at building out Payward Asset Management ahead of a possible Kraken IPO.
- Aave founder Stani Kulechov denied the protocol would sell AAVE at a roughly 70% discount and said Aave Labs takes none of the protocol’s revenue.
- The talks come two months after the April KelpDAO bridge exploit left Aave with up to $280 million in bad debt and cut its total value locked by about $15 billion.
Published: 26 June 2026, 16:30 UTC
What the reported deal involves
CoinDesk reported that Payward, Kraken’s operating company, would pay 35,000 ETH for 250,000 AAVE tokens plus a 15% common equity stake in Aave Group, valuing the business at $385 million. Kraken is also said to be syndicating part of the position to other investors.
A person familiar with the plan told CoinDesk the investment would be the first in a planned series of deals to build out Payward Asset Management, with the exchange taking a more active role in DeFi and other holdings. Payward has spent the past year expanding beyond spot trading into derivatives, custody, and asset management as it prepares for a potential public listing. Acquiring a stake in an established lending protocol would give it exposure to on-chain credit without building a competing product from scratch.
The structure matters. Paying in ETH for a mix of governance tokens and equity ties Kraken’s return to both Aave’s token price and the value of the underlying company, rather than a simple token purchase.
Why Aave’s founder pushed back
On June 26, Kulechov rejected the framing of the report. He denied that Aave would sell AAVE at a discount of around 70% and said the only accurate part was that several market participants had expressed interest in buying an AAVE allocation held by Aave Labs as part of longer-term partnerships. He stressed that Aave Labs serves the Aave DAO as a service provider and takes none of the protocol’s revenue, a distinction meant to separate the company from the decentralized protocol it helped create.
Kulechov used the moment to preview Aavenomics 3.0, a redesign of how value flows to the AAVE token. He said the plan would introduce an automated, non-discretionary buyback mechanism and reiterated that all Aave protocol and GHO stablecoin revenue is directed to the token. The pushback leaves the deal’s exact terms unconfirmed, even as multiple outlets reported the talks are underway.
The recovery backdrop
The timing is notable because Aave is still rebuilding. On April 18, an attacker exploited a bridge vulnerability in KelpDAO’s rsETH system, minting unbacked collateral and borrowing real ETH against it on Aave. Roughly $292 million was drained, and the protocol was left with an estimated $196 million to $280 million in bad debt. Aave’s total value locked, the sum of assets deposited in the protocol, fell from about $26.4 billion to $14.56 billion within a month as users pulled funds. Security researchers later linked the attack to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The episode followed a broader run of bridge-related failures across DeFi this year, including the Taiko layer 2 bridge exploit.
What it means for the industry
An exchange taking equity in a major DeFi protocol blurs a line the industry has worked to keep clean. Aave’s appeal to Kraken is its position in on-chain lending and the GHO stablecoin, assets that complement an exchange building out asset management. For Aave, outside capital and a large distribution partner could speed its recovery and steady AAVE demand, particularly if buybacks become automatic.
The move fits a wider pattern of exchanges expanding their reach rather than narrowing it, much as Binance has reshaped its European footprint and as institutions wire themselves into on-chain rails through efforts like Chainlink’s Project Pangea. Whether this specific transaction closes on the reported terms is now the open question. Kraken has not publicly confirmed the deal, and Aave’s founder has disputed key details. The next signal will come from either an official statement from Payward or on-chain movement of the ETH and AAVE the report describes.
Frequently asked questions
How much would Kraken pay for the Aave stake?
The CoinDesk report describes Kraken’s parent Payward paying 35,000 ETH, worth about $71 million, for 250,000 AAVE tokens and a 15% common equity stake in Aave Group, which values the company at $385 million.
Did Aave confirm the deal?
No. Founder Stani Kulechov disputed the report on June 26, denying that Aave would sell AAVE at a roughly 70% discount. He said only that some parties had expressed interest in an AAVE allocation held by Aave Labs.
What was the KelpDAO exploit?
On April 18, 2026, an attacker used a bridge flaw in KelpDAO’s rsETH system to borrow real ETH from Aave against unbacked collateral, draining about $292 million and leaving Aave with up to $280 million in bad debt.
Sources: CoinDesk, Unchained, BeInCrypto, CoinCentral.
