Kraken Eyes 15% Stake in Aave as DeFi Lender Rebuilds After $8 Billion Withdrawal Crisis

TLDR

• Kraken parent Payward is in talks to buy a 15% stake in DeFi lender Aave for around $71 million
• The deal would be structured as 35,000 ETH in exchange for 250,000 AAVE tokens and equity
• The proposed $385 million valuation is roughly 70% below Aave’s fully diluted token value
• Aave founder Stani Kulechov pushed back, saying AAVE will not be sold at a 70% discount
• Aave is rebuilding after the April KelpDAO exploit triggered over $8 billion in withdrawals

Crypto exchange Kraken is in talks to buy a 15% stake in Aave, the largest decentralized lending protocol on Ethereum. The deal would value Aave at $385 million.

The proposed investment would see Kraken’s parent company, Payward, put up 35,000 ether in exchange for 250,000 AAVE tokens and a 15% common equity stake in Aave Group.

The total deal is worth around $71 million. Kraken is also reportedly looking to bring in other investors to help fund it.

What the Deal Would Mean for Payward

The investment would be the first in a series of moves aimed at building out Payward Asset Management. Sources say the firm wants to take a more active role in DeFi and other investment opportunities.

Kraken has been expanding quickly ahead of a possible public listing. In April, Payward agreed to buy crypto derivatives exchange Bitnomial for up to $550 million, adding a full set of US CFTC licenses.

Payward was also reported in May to be raising new capital at a $20 billion valuation.

Aave Founder Pushes Back

The proposed $385 million valuation sits well below the AAVE token’s fully diluted valuation. Kulechov said Aave is currently generating $134 million in annualized revenue, all of which goes to the Aave DAO.

Kulechov added that the framing in the original report was inaccurate.

Aave’s Rocky 2026

The deal comes as Aave works to recover from one of DeFi’s biggest crises this year. In April, attackers linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group exploited KelpDAO’s cross-chain bridge and minted around $292 million in unbacked tokens.

The hackers deposited those tokens as collateral on Aave and borrowed real assets against them. When the collateral became worthless, Aave was left with an estimated $190 million to $230 million in bad debt.

Aave’s own smart contracts were never hacked, but the fallout still triggered more than $8 billion in withdrawals from the protocol.

Aave has since released an updated risk framework and launched version four of the protocol. Kulechov also passed his “Aave Will Win” governance proposal in April 2026, which redirected all protocol revenue to the Aave DAO and token holders.

He also mentioned that Aave Labs is now designing “Aavenomics 3.0,” which will include a new automated buyback mechanism for the AAVE token.

Neither Kraken nor Aave have confirmed that a deal is in progress.

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