Aave founder Stani Kulechov rejected a CoinDesk report that Kraken parent Payward is negotiating to acquire a 15% stake in Aave at a $385 million valuation. The report said the deal would involve 35,000 ETH, 250,000 AAVE tokens and a 15% equity stake in Aave Group. Kulechov said there is no way the protocol would be sold at a 70% discount and that the valuation represents about 30% of the fully diluted AAVE token price. He added that 100% of Aave protocol and GHO revenue goes to the AAVE token, as established in the Aave Will Win proposal. Aave Labs holds an allocation of AAVE tokens that market participants have explored purchasing through strategic partnerships, he said. Kraken declined to comment, and Aave did not respond to the publication’s request for comment before publication. Two sources familiar with the discussions told CoinDesk that Kraken intends to syndicate part of the investment, with an estimated value of around $71 million. A third source said the proposed transaction would be the first in a series under Payward Asset Management, a new business the company plans to use for investments in decentralized finance and other digital assets. Aave operates the largest decentralized lending protocol, allowing users to lend and borrow assets via smart contracts without intermediaries. Kraken and Aave have previously collaborated, including the launch of a white‑label version of Aave called Tydro on Kraken’s Layer 2 network Ink. Governance changes earlier this year approved the Aave Will Win proposal, which directs all protocol revenue to the DAO and approves multi‑year funding for Aave Labs. Aave released version 4 in March with an updated hub‑and‑spoke architecture and introduced a revised risk framework after the April KelpDAO exploit, though the smart contracts were not compromised. Kulechov said Aave Labs now serves as a development provider for the DAO and is designing Aavenomics 3.0, which will include an automated, non‑discretionary buyback mechanism for the AAVE token, details of which have not been released.