Kraken (part of Payward) is in talks to acquire a 15% stake in the DeFi protocol Aave at a valuation of $385 million, according to three sources.
Deal terms: Kraken will invest 35,000 ETH in exchange for 250,000 AAVE tokens and a 15% stake in Aave Group’s common shares. Kraken also plans to syndicate the deal, worth approximately $71 million. According to one source, this is the first in a series of investments aimed at growing Payward Asset Management—a firm that wants to become more actively involved in DeFi.
Aave is the largest decentralized lending protocol. In April, it found itself at the center of a crisis: hackers linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group exploited a vulnerability in the KelpDAO cross-chain bridge, minting roughly $292 million in unbacked rsETH. These tokens were used as collateral on Aave, and real assets were taken as backing, leaving the protocol with $190–230 million in irrecoverable debt. Although Aave’s smart contracts were not hacked, the incident triggered withdrawals of over $8 billion in funds.
Kraken is ramping up acquisitions ahead of a potential IPO. In April, Payward agreed to acquire the derivatives exchange Bitnomial for up to $550 million.
Current Aave FDV - $1.3 billion, up +9% on news