Kraken parent Payward buys an undisclosed AAVE stake on the open market, months after Aave rebuffed a discount deal

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, said Thursday that a fund it is affiliated with has bought AAVE tokens on the secondary market — without saying how many, or for how much.

The buyer was Digital Asset Special Investments I, LP, which Payward said made the purchases on behalf of itself and its clients, according to The Block, which reported the announcement. No financial terms were disclosed, and Payward left the door open to buying more AAVE later.

AAVE is the governance token of the Aave lending protocol; holders get voting rights over the protocol and its treasury. Under the "Aave Will Win" framework its DAO approved in April, revenue from Aave-branded products is routed into the DAO treasury — so a token position is, in effect, a claim on governance and on that revenue stream.

The timing is the story. In June, CoinDesk reported that Payward was in talks to buy a 15% stake in Aave at a $385 million valuation — roughly a 70% discount to the token's market value at the time, per that report. Aave founder Stani Kulechov publicly pushed back on the characterization of a bid, while acknowledging that investors had discussed buying portions of Aave Labs' AAVE allocation through partnership deals. Thursday's purchases ran through the open market instead — a different route than the discounted private stake that was floated and disputed in June.

Both sides framed the deal warmly. Gurpreet Oberoi, VP of Payward Asset Management and Institutional, said the investment "reflects our long-term conviction in onchain credit markets and DeFi," citing client demand. Kulechov called it "a strategic step toward bringing Aave to the next wave of retail and institutional users."

Key facts

• Payward announced Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, that an affiliated fund bought AAVE on the secondary market; amount and price not disclosed. (The Block, citing Payward's post)
• Buyer: Digital Asset Special Investments I, LP, purchasing for itself and clients. (The Block)
• June 2026: CoinDesk reported Payward was in talks for a 15% Aave stake at a $385M valuation, ~70% below market; Kulechov disputed the bid framing. (The Block, citing CoinDesk)
• AAVE carries governance rights; the April "Aave Will Win" framework routes Aave product revenue to the DAO treasury. (The Block)

The real-world read

Note where these quotes come from: the statements praising the deal are from Payward's own executive and Aave's founder, issued in Payward's and Aave's own announcements — interested parties, not independent assessment. Discount that framing accordingly.

And note what isn't said. Payward disclosed neither the number of tokens nor the dollars spent, so there's no way to know whether this is a token foothold or a near-15% position by another name. The June talks reportedly centered on a steeply discounted private stake; Thursday's buys came on the secondary market, with no word on whether the private deal is dead, parked, or simply restructured into open-market accumulation. Until the size is public, "undisclosed" is doing a lot of work.

This is not financial advice.

Sources

• The Block (Tier 2, reputable secondary), Nov. 5, 2026 — reported Payward's announcement, the buyer entity, the executive and founder quotes, and the AAVE/DAO-treasury background; itself citing Payward's post and Aave's separate announcement (both interested-party statements), and citing CoinDesk for the June stake report.