Aave founder Stani Kulechov (스타니 쿨레초프) denied a report that Kraken parent Payward is in talks to acquire 15 percent of Aave for $385 million, The Block reported on Thursday.
Kulechov said on X that he would not sell Aave at a 70 percent discount. Earlier, CoinDesk reported, citing two anonymous sources, that such talks were under way. The $385 million valuation is about 30 percent of Aave token fully diluted value.
But Kulechov did not deny the possibility of selling some AAVE tokens held by Aave Labs, the for-profit research and development company that first built the Aave protocol.
"There have been discussions with several market participants about buying AAVE held by Aave Labs, directly or indirectly, and through a deeper long-term partnership," he said. He added of the CoinDesk article that "the article got the situation wrong." Kulechov also said Aave's annualised revenue is $134 million and is attributed to the Aave DAO.
Kraken and Aave have also worked together in the past. Last year, Kraken layer 2 Ink used Aave to launch Tydro and used it as a core lending infrastructure.
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr