PANews reported on December 23 that Marc Zeller, a former core member of AAVE, stated that the Aave DAO, not Avara which has since transitioned to an independent company, is the true driving force behind the protocol's operation. For the past three years, core tasks including risk management, technology upgrades, and ecosystem expansion have been handled by DAO's service providers, generating substantial revenue for the protocol. Zeller emphasized that if strategic brand assets such as domain names and trademarks remain unilaterally controlled by private companies, it not only weakens the DAO's governance but could also harm ecosystem fairness and talent retention, ultimately jeopardizing the long-term foundation of the entire protocol's development.