A fund and its clients affiliated with Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, have purchased an undisclosed amount of AAVE tokens through secondary-market transactions.
The investment was made via Digital Asset Special Investments I, LP, Payward announced on November 5, 2026. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the statement left open the possibility of additional AAVE purchases in the future.
“This investment reflects our long-term conviction in onchain credit markets and DeFi, as well as growing demand from our clients for exposure to the infrastructure shaping the future of finance,” said Gurpreet Oberoi, vice president of Payward Asset Management and Institutional, in an announcement from Aave.
AAVE tokens provide holders with governance rights over the Aave protocol and its treasury. Under the “Aave Will Win” framework approved in April 2026, revenue from Aave-branded products is directed into the DAO treasury.
The secondary market purchases follow Aave founder Stani Kulechov’s June 2026 rejection of a CoinDesk report claiming that Payward was in talks to buy a 15% stake in the protocol at a $385 million valuation. At the time, that figure represented roughly a 70% discount to the protocol’s market value. Kulechov acknowledged that investors had discussed buying portions of Aave Labs’ AAVE allocation through partnership arrangements.
“Working with Payward is a strategic step toward bringing Aave to the next wave of retail and institutional users,” Kulechov said.
Source (Published November 5, 2026)