PANews reported on December 24th that, according to Cointelegraph, Aave founder Stani Kulechov recently spent $10 million to purchase AAVE tokens. Some members of the cryptocurrency community claim this move is aimed at increasing his voting power in key governance proposals. Critics argue that large token purchases could have a substantial impact on the voting results of high-risk proposals. This controversy has once again raised concerns about whether token-based governance can adequately protect the interests of minority holders, especially when founders or early insiders wield significant economic influence.

DeFi strategist Robert Mullins posted on the X forum that Kulechov's purchase of AAVE tokens was intended to increase its "voting power so that it could vote in favor of a proposal that directly harms the interests of token holders." He added, "This clearly demonstrates that the token mechanism is insufficient to effectively prevent governance attacks on AAVE tokens."

Previous reports indicated that AAVE community's new proposal aimed to reclaim ownership of the brand and distribution channels.