The Aave community has bemoaned the recent purchase of $10 million AAVE tokens by the project team founder, Stani Kulechov. On Wednesday, renowned decentralized finance strategist and liquidity specialist, Robert Mullins accused Kulechov of increasing his token holdings.
According to the specialist, the Aave founder aims to use the latest token acquisition to enhance his voting power on a key governance proposal. With the increased voting power, Robert Mullins said the founder intends to vote directly against the proposal.
In the post, Robert Mullins argued that the move is “a clear example of tokens not being equipped to disincentivize governance attacks adequately.” More so, the system comes under scrutiny due to how a proposal that aims to reclaim control of the protocol’s assets advanced to a snapshot vote amid an ongoing debate.
Meanwhile, the former Chief Technology Officer of Aave Labs, Ernesto Boado, who initiated the proposal said the vote escalated without his consent and affected community trust.
The proposal suggests AAVE token holders should reclaim ownership of domains, social media pages, and intellectual property via a DAO-controlled legal structure. However, numerous community members rejected the decision stating that the proposal escalated at an early stage.
Critics fault Aave voting system
Furthermore, the development has spurred reactions from a section of the crypto community who accused Stani Kulechov of working against the interests of AAVE holders. In addition to Mullins’ argument, Sisyphus, another popular figure in the community, suggested that the project founder might have sold a huge chunk of AAVE between 2021 and 2025.
It is worth mentioning that the fuss emanated as AAVE holders debated on the decentralized governance system on Aave, which is widely regarded as one of the biggest DeFi protocols. So far, commentators have pointed to how large a token purchase can impact voting outcomes on key proposals.
The controversy shifted attention to DAOs with token-based voting, with concerns about the relevance of small token holders in the system. Critics pointed to how this system gives founders and early adopters a huge economic advantage.
Currently, a snapshot from the Aave DAO reveals that the top three voters hold more than 58% of the entire vote which further fuels community concern. Meanwhile, AAVE is enduring a significant price downfall that has seen the token dip by 22.48% in the last 30 days, trading at $147.