Aave’s Descent into Centralized Madness

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The inimitable Aave, that paragon of decentralized finance, has taken a most…enlightened step towards embracing the warm, fuzzy glow of centralization 🤝. A proposal to launch a whitelabel version of its service on Kraken’s Ink blockchain has been met with a resounding 99.8

An Aave request for comment (ARFC), that most thrilling of bureaucratic exercises, was duly approved, paving the way for the next phase: the drafting of an Aave improvement proposal (AIP) that will be voted onchain, because what’s a little decentralization without a dash of onchain voting, eh? 🗳️

The ARFC averred that “by granting a license to deploy a centralized version of the Aave (AAVE) codebase, Aave can expand its technology adoption while creating new revenue streams” – a statement that reads like a cross between a corporate press release and a hostage note 📝.

Aave, characteristically, had not responded to a request for comment by publication time, leaving one to wonder if they’ve been spirited away to a secret location, there to be indoctrinated in the dark arts of centralization 🔮.

Kraken’s Ink blockchain, unveiled in late 2024 with all the fanfare of a damp squib, aims to serve as a compliant layer-2 platform for tokenized assets and institutional DeFi – because, of course, the only thing the world needs is another layer-2 platform 🤔.

Aave’s Foray into the Institutional Lending Market

The proposal states that this partnership could be “an opportunity for Aave to expand its influence in the institutional lending space” – a prospect that sends shivers down the spine, rather like the thought of a polite, well-mannered sociopath 🤝.

The Aave DAO would receive a share “greater than or equal to the equivalent of a Reserve Factor of 5

“The Ink Foundation has committed significant incentives to bootstrapping this instance. This includes multiple liquidity mining programs that are expected to bring over $250m in early supply to the instance.”

Aave’s Trajectory: Upwards, Downwards, and Sideways

The announcement follows Aave reaching a total value locked (TVL) of $40.3 billion in mid-May – a figure that has since dipped to about $33.5 billion, placing it a respectable second behind liquid staking platform Lido, which holds $34.3 billion in assets 📊.

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2025-07-21 18:29