Aave (AAVE)

The recent $aave drama reminds us that you can be bullish on the protocol but not necessarily invest in the token. DeFi gave rise to some of the most amazing protocols that revolutionized finance with billions locked, flawless code, as secure as it can be in the smart contract environment, but the tokens? Worthless governance dogshit coins. No real economics, no binding claim on value, just governance theater with a desperate attempt to drive yield and utility. TLDR; Aave labs decided to reroute the fees from the DAO to themselves overnigh after the recent cowswap in stealth mode. How can anyone justify this is worth a longterm investment when governance is just larping and no real clam to ownership? This isn't Aave-specific either, it's a plague with most of defi blue chips and any other useless governance tokens. Tokens are basically a means to have access to glorified Discord roles not stakes in cash flows or real ownership. The only protocol I’m aware of that has actually focused on changing this is @Morpho. They effectively killed the Labs-DAO split by restructuring into a nonprofit, declarng $MORPHO the *only* asset. No parallel equity, no IPO risks, no stealth grabs or overnight fee redirects. More about it here: https://t.co/xzAMo2EFMU If DeFi ever wants serious capital in their tokens, not just degen flips, this single asset alignment is the good step in the right direction imo. Until we see major changes, be bullish on the protocol but don’t hold the token.

Aave DAO probes CoW Swap 'stealth privatization', Labs accused of backdoor changes sans vote. DeFi governance drama? Transparency rugs in 'decentralized' ponzis. Bitcoin: Governance by code, no DAOs, no probes, just unbreakable consensus.

Lending looks profitable until you follow the money. Last 30D: • $200.9M in fees • $17.3M retained by protocols That’s 8.6% capture. The rest doesn’t disappear. It’s paid out to the people actually supplying the capital. Lending protocols aren’t trying to maximize margins. They’re trying to keep balance sheets full. Higher protocol take means lower supplier yield. Lower yield means capital exits. So revenue is intentionally capped. This is why lending scales in TVL but not in earnings. The business isn’t fee extraction. It’s trust, liquidity, and not breaking in bad markets. Thin margins aren’t a bug. They’re the price of running credit onchain.

The money I took out of crypto to sustain my life into retirement over the years: - Real estate rental - Spx500 - Gold - Stablecoin Yield farming I continue to invest in crypto but the profits that were made here need to be put to work in real. CT often says 1-2 million ain't enough to retire. Hell they even say 5 or 10 million ain't enough. Even a modest 5% return on a year alone is already 50 to 100k with capital CT says you could never retire with in your wildest dreams. The Spx500 alone already has an average long term return of 10-11% a year and it's extremely low maintenance since it's an index. No follow-up, no stock knowledge, no nothing. Gold is gold, real estate does require some maintenance but more consistent returns and stablecoin yield will become more easy and safe than ever soon (aave). 1/ Making profits is the first step 2/ Maintaining it is the second You would be surprised how many fail at 2 and go back to 1. Overly spending (luxury car, fancy trips, showing off) is way more easy ofcourse than putting that money to work. Also: step 1 doesn't necessarily need to come from crypto. Your job, your savings, inheritance from parents etc also should go to step nr.2 Well you don't need to do anything ofcourse but you get the idea to get there.