Inside the Aave – WLFI proposal: Rumors, revenue sharing, and governance?

Key Takeaways

Aave is weighing a partnership with the World Liberty Financial (WLFI). This would give its DAO a share of WLFI tokens and revenues, something that has fueled a debate due to Trump family ties and unclear terms. 

A proposal tied to World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is stirring debate in the DeFi space. Especially as fresh details surface around its potential partnership with Aave.

Rumors around the Aave-WLFI proposal

The plan, first floated in October 2024, suggests that Aave’s governing DAO could secure 7% of WLFI’s governance token supply, along with 20% of revenues from WLFI’s deployment on Aave v3.

Now, the move has fueled speculation over token allocations and raised questions. Particularly given WLFI’s high-profile backing from members of U.S President Donald Trump’s family.

Over the weekend, Aave founder Stani Kulechov also described this new partnership proposal as “the art of the deal,” emphasizing its potential to expand the ecosystem.

However, uncertainty around the details caused volatility in AAVE’s price, with the same dipping from around $385 to as low as $339, before stabilizing at $346.68 at press time. Simply put, this episode saw the token’s value drop by over 3% on the charts. 

Rumors that Aave would directly receive 7% of WLFI’s token supply further accelerated the uncertainty around the token and its position in the market. 

What’s the reality?

Fir its part though, the WLFI team later clarified that this was “false.” The team explained instead that AaveDAO will earn 20% of fees from WLFI’s Aave v3 instance, plus around 7% of WLFI tokens for governance, liquidity mining, and decentralization.

According to Colin Wu, the proposal has already cleared AaveDAO governance and has been ratified by WLFI.

For context, the plan centers on launching a dedicated WLFI Aave v3 instance to provide stablecoin liquidity for ETH and WBTC, while expanding Aave’s reach. By leveraging Aave’s infrastructure and strong marketing, WLFI aims to attract both crypto-native users and institutional investors with seamless lending and borrowing.

For Aave, the partnership offers brand expansion, deeper liquidity, and a stronger position as an entry point for new DeFi users.

WLFI also plans to list assets outside Aave’s mainnet focus, expanding diversity, while incentives will include $WLF rewards for liquidity providers.

What’s more?

If approved, the collaboration could bridge institutional capital with decentralized liquidity and reinforce Aave’s leadership in DeFi lending. This, at a time when DeFi is once again in the spotlight, supported by surging TVL and a wave of institutional participation.

With over $167 billion now locked in DeFi protocols and momentum building towards the previous $212 billion-peak, the sector is at a critical inflection point.

Here, it’s worth pointing out that this report coincided with Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial getting ready to debut its WLFI token on 01 September. Only a fraction of presale tokens were unlocked at launch.

How this balance plays out may define the next chapter for decentralized finance.