Aave Labs sunsets Avara ‘umbrella brand’ and Family wallet as it refocuses on DeFi

Aave Labs is sunsetting the Avara "umbrella brand," which once housed its semi-related family of Web3 projects, including Lens, the decentralized social media project recently acquired by Mask, and the Family wallet, which Aave co-founder Stani Kulechov said on Tuesday will be wound down. "All current and future products, including the Aave mobile app, Aave Pro, and Aave Kit, will operate under Aave Labs," Avara said on X. "This change simplifies our brand surface under Aave Labs and focuses our resources on building Aave brand awareness and introducing DeFi to millions of new users globally."The move to sunset Avara and cut loose its non-lending-related intellectual property comes amid a shift in focus at Aave Labs to recenter attention on the Aave lending protocol. It also comes amid a simmering debate between Aave Labs, the private company that initially developed the Aave lending protocol, and the Aave DAO, which has largely shepherded the Aave smart contracts and protocol parameters since the Avara rebrand in 2023, over which entity ultimately controls Aave. Aave is by far the dominant onchain credit system on Ethereum.Labs vs. DAO?Last December, Aave Labs sparked tensions within the Aave community after integrating CoW Swap into the official aave.com interface and redirecting swap fees that previously funded the Aave DAO treasury to a private wallet controlled by Aave Labs. That move surfaced questions over who truly owns Aave. The Aave DAO, governed by AAVE token holders, is said to control the protocol's smart contracts, risk parameters, and protocol-level revenue, while Aave Labs owns key off-chain elements like the official frontend (aave.com), branding, domains, social media, IP, trademarks, and other user-facing products.A community-led "poison pill" proposal to legally seize Aave Labs' IP, code, brand assets, and equity — essentially turning the company into a DAO subsidiary — failed during a governance vote, in part due to Aave Labs' and Kulechov's concentrated token holdings. However, Kulechov has since proposed sharing future non-protocol revenue with AAVE holders and revisiting the IP and branding question.At the time of the Avara rebrand, a Finnish phrase for "seeing more than you see," Kulechov said the company wanted to expand beyond its DeFi niche into other web3 verticals. Now, however, it appears that Kulechov is once again championing DeFi. In January, Aave announced it sold the Lens web3 social media protocol and it will now look to wind down its Family wallet-related projects."As part of this transition, the Avara brand is no longer required as we go all in on bringing Aave to the masses," Kulechov said on X. "We are now united as one team of world-class designers, engineers, and smart contract experts, aligned around a single mission: bringing DeFi to everyone."Late last year, Aave unveiled an upgraded Aave App offering high-yield savings options, including interest rates of up to 9% and "insurance-backed protection" on deposits up to $1 million. Kulechov also previously said the protocol is pursuing a long-term plan to scale toward trillions of dollars in onchain financial activity, following the conclusion of a multi-year regulatory probe by U.S. authorities.On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported Kulechov had purchased a five-story Victorian mansion in London's Notting Hill for £22 million, or about $30 million, sparking some pushback. Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.© 2026 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.