Aave Crypto Lending Protocol Says SEC Ends Four-Year Investigation with No Enforcement Action
Aave, a major crypto lending protocol, announced that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has closed its four-year investigation into the project with no enforcement action planned. This was confirmed by Aave's CEO, Stani Kulechov, via X and a letter from the SEC. The SEC itself declined to comment on the existence or nonexistence of any investigation when contacted by Decrypt.
Aave currently reports assets under management of approximately $32.79 billion, a substantial increase from $13.21 billion four years ago according to DefiLlama. The AAVE token trades near $186, reflecting a 1.4% gain in the last 24 hours as per CoinGecko.
In 2024, the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial submitted a proposal to build on Aave and acquired nearly $1 million worth of AAVE tokens. However, the project has since shifted toward issuing a USD1 stablecoin and has been pursuing stablecoin-related legislation.
This development is seen as part of a broader trend in which the SEC has dropped several crypto cases under the Trump administration, including ones involving Binance, Coinbase, and OpenSea. Notably, the Ripple case concluded in August with the SEC and Ripple Labs dropping disputes following earlier XRP-related allegations.
Additionally, Keonne Rodriguez, a developer for Samourai Wallet, faces a five-year prison sentence; former President Trump has suggested he might consider pardoning Rodriguez, with a Myriad prediction market estimating about a 20% chance of pardon before February 2026.
Aave's founder highlighted that defending the project throughout the four-year investigation demanded significant resources and was crucial for protecting decentralized finance (DeFi). The article closes with an optimistic outlook on the future of DeFi.
