Ribbon Finance governance approves Aevo brand merger

The Ribbon Finance brand and its RBN token will transition to the derivatives exchange brand and AEVO token

article-image

SFIO CRACHO/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Ribbon DAO token holders have voted in favor of folding Ribbon Finance into the affiliated Aevo derivatives exchange, which launched its mainnet in June.

Under the proposal, the Ribbon Finance dapp will be moved under the Aevo domain, and Ribbon’s existing structured products will adopt Aevo’s visual identity.

The near-unanimous vote by 133 RBN token holders, which concluded Tuesday, also authorizes a 1:1 token conversion from RBN to a new AEVO token, yet to be launched.

According to the proposal, “Aevo will be converted into a DAO, allowing tokenholders to govern the options and perpetuals exchange, OTC, the existing structured products, and the Aevo L2 rollup itself.”

Blockworks Research analyst Ren Yu Kong called the proposal “a fantastic one for the RBN token and should greatly improve tokenomics, and “shininess” surrounding a new token.”

Ribbon currently runs 16 DeFi options vaults (DOVs) on Ethereum, with a share of revenues directed to RBN token holders who lock their tokens for a fixed period of time, and receive veRBN in return.

But the protocol has struggled to scale, prompting the team to pivot to Aevo, a non-custodial options and perpetual futures exchange built as a layer-2 rollup using the Optimism stack. This uses an off-chain order book familiar to traders on centralized exchanges.

Once enacted, veRBN can unlock their RBN tokens without penalty and migrate them, while vault revenue sharing will be stopped, pending a further proposal on AEVO tokenomics.

The protocol’s developers and investors all agreed to re-vest their own token allocations for an additional year as part of the process.

What’s in a name?

Most governance discussion on the project’s forum and Discord was favorable to the proposal, but some questioned the relative merits of the two brands.

“Aevo will get lost and confused with Aave and others,” wrote one community member on Discord. “Ribbon as a brand clearly stands out.”

The project’s community manager disagreed, calling the Ribbon brand a “limitation,” due to its “heavy baggage” — a reference to problems that emerged following the launch of the RBN token in 2021 after DeFi venture fund Divergence Ventures, a Ribbon investor, was found to have Sybil-attacked the airdrop.

“Ribbon is our history, let us not make it our burden,” the community manager said.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

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

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 24 - 26, 2026

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

Unlocked by Template.png

Research

The march toward an interoperable and onchain-by-default internet depends on reliable messaging and value transfer across heterogeneous domains. Crosschain protocols now process >$1.3T in combined annual transfer volume and secure tens of millions of user interactions, yet no single design dominates.

article-image

The goal, per Santiago Santos, is to make crypto a relatable piece of tech for people who may not even understand it

article-image

Stripe stablecoin unit aims to operate under a federal charter enabling regulated stablecoin issuance and custody services

by Blockworks /
article-image

Will TradFi make crypto better or create more problems than it solves?

article-image

Subtle decisions by risk curators saved Aave from significant turmoil

article-image

The new Rootstock Institutional unit aims to connect professional investors to Bitcoin-native yield and liquidity strategies anchored in BTC’s security layer

by Blockworks /
article-image

DOJ files record civil forfeiture against more than 127,000 BTC linked to scam activity

by Blockworks /