ACI is leaving Aave

Governance General
1

Title: ACI is leaving Aave

Author: Marc Zeller, founder of ACI

Date: 2026-03-03

I built the Aave Chan Initiative to make Aave win. For three years, that is what we did. 61% of all governance actions. Revenue strategies that drive 48% of protocol income. $101M in incentives deployed. GHO from $35M to $527M. Market share from below 50% to 65%+. Eight people. $4.625M over three years.

ACI will not seek renewal of its engagement with the Aave DAO.

ACI will wind down over four months.

We will continue governance activity, implement outstanding Skyward commitments, and focus on infrastructure handoff and transition.

Why

We spent three years building a culture of accountability inside the Aave DAO. Transparent reporting, on-chain verification, delegate coordination, service provider standards. When we applied those same standards to the entity requesting the largest budget in DAO history, the system stopped working.

BGD Labs, the team that built and maintained the V3 codebase generating $100M+ per year, walked away. Our four conditions for proceeding responsibly went unaddressed. The Temp Check vote that followed was decided by Labs-linked addresses voting on their own budget. The full analysis is in our AWW post-mortem.

There is no role for an independent service provider in an environment where the largest budget recipient holds undisclosed voting power and uses it on its own proposals.

Settlement

We’re submitting a direct-to-AIP to cancel ACI’s GHO stream (stream 100070) and transfer 120 days worth to treasury.aci.eth. The rest goes back to the DAO. The full proposal is linked separately.

ACI’s contract runs through November 2026. We’re accelerating the timeline to four months, focused on infrastructure and handoff. But we don’t trust a governance process controlled by a single entity to keep the stream running while we do. One proposal from Labs and the funding disappears overnight. The lump sum makes sure we can finish the work and execute a graceful exit regardless of what happens in governance after we leave.

After AIP execution, ACI will cut its own AAVE vesting stream via LlamaPay (0x9bdbb2997d3aa0becc56dfc960e0e17d7e9abae1).

Handoff

Every system ACI built transfers to the DAO or successor service providers:

  • Skyward commitments: All outstanding proposals will be implemented using ACI proposal power before departure.
  • Dolce vita: All dolce vita process will be open-sourced and delivered to the Aave DAO
  • Incentive programs: Current LM programs and GHO incentive structures will be documented with full context for the successor. MASIv infrastructure will be deprecated after departure.
  • Delegate coordination: ACI won’t manage delegate relations or the Orbit program after departure. Independent delegates should establish direct communication channels.
  • Governance tooling: All ACI-built governance infrastructure, dashboards, apps, and monitoring tools will be open-sourced or transferred.
  • Operational management: ACI holds signing seats on the Aave Liquidity Committee (ALC), serves on the GHO Stewards, and is a signer on the Aave Guardian multisig. We’ll continue that work until the last day, then gracefully give up our seats.

We’ll publish a detailed transition document with timelines for each handoff item.

We’ll hold ourselves to the same standard on the way out as on day one. The goal is to leave the protocol in the best possible state. What happens after that will be owned end-to-end by the remaining service providers.

To our delegators

Thank you. We carried the largest non-Labs delegate position because you trusted us with it. We used that trust to fight for transparency and accountability until the last day.

To the remaining service providers

Chaos Labs, TokenLogic, LlamaRisk, Certora. The protocol works because of what we all built together. We wish you well.

ACI

The Aave Chan Initiative was built for Aave. Without a future in the Aave ecosystem, the name no longer applies. ACI will wrap up as our obligations conclude.

It has been an honor to serve the Aave DAO. We did our best.

Who is John Galt?

Marc Zeller

Founder, ACI

38 Likes
2

Well… Nothing much needed to say.
Thank you for everything, for encouraging people creating delegate platforms, inventing many of the governance processes and much more.
Thank you to the whole team at ACI, I was able to meet the majority at last years ETHCC.
It was a pleasure

He is the man who would stop the motor of the world

15 Likes
3

Thank you for all the contributions made by ACI. It is truly regrettable that the AAVE protocol has finally been ruined by the lab team themselves, leaving a classic negative lesson in the history of DeFi.

4 Likes
4

thank you for your service. i wish the ACI team could find a new home at [my bags] and continue to be a superior operator

3 Likes
5

ACI work will always live on-chain. Thanks to all ACI team members to always be transparency maximalists, working hard in the governance trenches to create one of the most fastest DAOs in terms of execution and telling the truth, regardless of the consequences.

4 Likes
6

I wish things could have worked out differently. I was really excited about the future of Aave as a builder myself but now I’m kind of lost. Thanks @ACI for everything. I don’t know what more to say. Just another sad day.

5 Likes
7

This news is a total bombshell. One of my main motivations for wanting to be a delegate and more active in governance is thanks to all the work ACI has done to make Aave as decentralized as possible. They’ve done an incredible job over the years; today, Aave loses a major player once again. I will try to continue my work by honoring what ACI has built.

6 Likes
8

Sad thanks Marc , you have done an amazing job !!

Are you joining MORPHO ?
https://x.com/i/jobs/2015709292289024276

1 Like
9

Thank you for everything it is truly heartbreaking to see it come to this. Just as you always emphasized without a genuine accountability mechanism you cannot build decentralization or transparency with fancy and empty buzzwords. The stage is entirely yours now AAVE Labs. You can now feast on that massive treasury built by the hard work of this community as if it were your own private property without any oversight. Need more money just put on a fake governance show since you hold all the voting power anyway right. Now that the core pillars like @bgdlabs and @ACI have walked away it is time for a community fork. Just open a single neutral poll on X and you will see exactly how desperately this community demands a fork.

3 Likes
10

Sad day.

You have your strong principles focused on what’s best not just for Aave as a protocol but to $AAVE token holders as well. And you stood for what you believed.

Was great to be working with you.

4 Likes
11

History will remember everything, and ACI will be remembered forever. Thank you for everything you’ve done for AAVE.

AAVE Labs and Stani will become a disgrace in blockchain history.

We suggest Marc fork AAVE and create a separate project with BGD Labs. We support you.

3 Likes
12

The Aave Chan Initiative has played such a fundamental role in the success of Aave Protocol over the years. This is definitely sad news, and we are concerned to see this departure.

We are honored to have worked alongside the ACI.

3 Likes
13

Thank you Marc and the rest of the ACI team for your hard work and transparency over all these years. It is genuinely regrettable that it has come to this situation where both @bgdlabs and @ACI have been pushed to make this hard decision.

We wish you the best on your future endeavors and hope you guys will continue to make change in defi.

2 Likes
14

I am extremely sad after seeing this post. As a previous ACI employee I hope for the best in your future! I would’ve never predicted ACI would leave Aave.

3 Likes
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Over the past seven years, Marc has been one of the most active voices in Aave ecosystem. Through the Aave Chan Initiative, he helped shape incentive programs, contributed to the protocol’s growth, and played a role in the DAO’s evolution. His impact on the community is well documented and widely felt.

The protocol continues to operate as normal and incentive programs are unaffected. Aave Labs will work with the DAO’s other service providers to make sure this transition is smooth for the community. We thank Marc for everything he has contributed and wish him well.

Stani

3 Likes
16

expecting it but still im sad somehow, idk why.

Thank you to the whole team at ACI for representing us as our delegate and thank you for everything you did

@MarcZeller btw what do I do with this now :(

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17

Jeeez, we didn’t expect to read this already now. Sad news for the protocol, but somehow not really surprising considering the timeline of events over the last 3-4 months.

@ACI thank you for the tremendous work delivered during your mandate and thanks for standing for your values.

We assume this was a team decision and hope all team members already have plans to move on, after your mandate is over. In any case we wish you all the best for what’s next.

2 Likes
18

Very sad day indeed :frowning:

But big thanks to Marc and his team for all the help provided during these years

1 Like
19

As an ACI delegate for the past 4 years, this feels like another gut punch, much like when BGD Labs announced they were also stepping away from the DAO.

Thank you sincerely for all the hard work, dedication, and commitment you’ve given to the DAO over the years.

4 Likes
20

Same story with BGD leaving. $AAVE takes a huge hit and is again one of the biggest losers in 24hours today. The community and market really feel these decisions and it’s a shame it has gone this far. Nice to see Stani engaging and wishing you farewell but seems like he is completely ignoring the problems. With you gone the keys to the vault are completely in Labs hands. God have mercy for regular token holders and AAVE believers.

Thanks for the work and best of luck in the future.