Aave DAO votes in favor of acquiring CRV tokens with USDT

The DAO will use $2 million worth of USDT to secure 5 million CRV tokens

article-image

WindAwake/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Led by Marc Zeller of the Aave Chan Initiative, Aave DAO’s community governance process has approved a proposal to strategically acquire CRV tokens using USDT from Aave DAO’s treasury.

This comes in the wake of a recent exploit, when Curve lost over $70 million due to a bug in the programming language Vyper. The aftermath saw CRV, Curve’s native token, plunge to $0.59 at the time of writing; a significant drop from its previous position of approximately $0.73 pre-exploit.

According to Zeller, the proposed acquisition, which involves procuring five million CRV tokens in exchange for two million USDT, would help indicate support for the wider DeFi ecosystem.

He believes it also presents an opportunity to bolster secondary liquidity for Aave’s stablecoin, GHO.

“These tokens can be mobilized to incentivize GHO liquidity via locking them to gather Curve voting power and support a GHO-specific Gauge,” Zeller wrote in a proposal. “The treasury balance and the predicted lower costs for service providers for the 2023-2024 budget would allow this strategic acquisition while maintaining a conservative stance with DAO treasury holdings.”

One concern, voiced by an Aave community member known as MrKris, was that acquiring more CRV tokens would amplify Aave’s exposure to CRV-related risks.

Curve’s founder, Michael Egorov, had taken out a significant loan of an estimated $70 million in USDT using CRV as collateral on Aave v2. This meant that if the price of CRV dropped below 65% to roughly $0.32, Aave could potentially be left with bad debt. Egorov ultimately undertook a process to rebalance and pay down some of that debt.

Despite these concerns, the proposal has passed, with almost 58% of voters choosing to go ahead with the acquisition of CRV, and 42% voting against it.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.jpg

Research

Figure, founded by former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, has emerged as a leader in onchain RWAs, with ~$17.5B publicly tokenized. The platform’s ecosystem volume is growing ~40% YoY as it expands beyond HELOCs into student loans, DSCR loans, unsecured loans, bankruptcy claims, and more. Operationally, Figure cuts average loan production cost by ~93% and compresses median funding time from ~42 days to ~10, creating a durable speed-and-cost advantage.

article-image

The reserve will collect protocol revenues to back W token, alongside new yield and unlock schedule

by Blockworks /
article-image

Layer 2 network Taiko integrates Chainlink Data Streams to deliver reliable onchain market data for DeFi and institutions

by Blockworks /
article-image

The license will allow Bullish to operate in New York under strict digital asset rules

by Blockworks /
article-image

The derivatives giant expands crypto offerings with new Solana and XRP futures options, pending regulatory review

by Blockworks /
article-image

Nasdaq-listed firm to fund Solana token purchases and expand its blockchain-focused treasury strategy

by Blockworks /
article-image

The partnership deepens liquidity and lowers conversion costs as demand for regulated stablecoins grows worldwide

by Blockworks /