[ARFC] Aave Finance Steward Deployment

Governance
1

title: [ARFC] Aave Finance Steward Modules Deployment
author: @TokenLogic
created: 2025-03-18

Summary

This publication details the initial configuration of the Aave Finance Steward.

The Finance Steward role is comprised of a set of Modules (Smart Contracts) that provide approved signers with the ability to perform DAO approved actions such as swapping tokens or migrating assets from Aave V2 to Aave V3.

Motivation

Overview

Service providers have been progressively streamlining the management of the Aave DAO’s funds by shifting approved ARFC proposals from on-chain vote to trusted smart contracts that act as stewards. Building on the success of the initial Risk Stewards and the introduction of the Clinic Steward and GHO Stewards, the Finance Steward modules will further enhance the efficiency and coordination of DAO operations.

The Finance Steward modules enables the DAO to define a core set of financial capabilities to be carried out within strict role-based guardrails. As the role matures or new use cases arise, we plan to bring forward additional capabilities for the DAO to discuss.

The initial set up of the Finance Steward includes deploying two separate modules (smart contracts), the PoolExposureSteward and the MainnetSwapSteward.

PoolExposureModule

Features

The PoolExposureModule is granted permission to facilitate the following routine operational tasks:

Migrations

  • Withdraw assets from Aave V2 and deposit into Aave V3.
  • Withdraw assets from a given Aave V3 pool and deposit into another Aave V3 pool (ie: Core to Prime).

Deposit Passive Assets

  • Deposit idle Collector funds into Aave V3.

Withdraw Assets

  • Withdraw funds from Aave V2 or Aave V3 into the Collector.
    These funds can then be used for runway or to perform swaps where applicable.

SwapModule

The SwapModule is granted permission to swap tokens held by the Collector for other tokens to be sent to the Collector as well. The SwapModule will only be available on Mainnet initially.

The below details frequent routine operations supported by the MainnetSwapSteward module:

  • Swap assets to support near term DAO financial expenses such as ensuring incentive campaigns and Service Providers are adequately funded.
  • Reduce exposure to long-tail assets by exchanging these assets for stablecoins or wETH.
  • Convert ETH to a liquid staking token (LST) to earn additional yield;.

Budget Limits

To align the MainnetSwapSteward module’s functionality with immediate operational requirements, the contract is designed with a predefined budget per token, which can only be adjusted through Aave’s governance. This budget parameter serves as a safeguard, ensuring controlled exposure for the DAO by limiting the volume of assets that can be swapped from the Treasury.

Specification

The publication will be rolled-out in two steps. The first step will launch the PoolExposure module and the second proposal will launch the MainnetSwap module.

Both contracts have the DAO as the owner of the contract and the following SAFE acting as the guardian 0x22740deBa78d5a0c24C58C740e3715ec29de1bFa.

The SAFE is to be configured as a 3-out-of-4 multi-sig, and the signers for the SAFE are the following:

Marc (AaveChan) - 0x329c54289Ff5D6B7b7daE13592C6B1EDA1543eD4
Matt (TokenLogic) - 0xb647055A9915bF9c8021a684E175A353525b9890
Chaos Labs - 0x5d49dBcdd300aECc2C311cFB56593E71c445d60d
Val (LlamaRisk) - 0xbA037E4746ff58c55dc8F27a328C428F258DDACb

The PoolExposureModule will be deployed on the following chains, with the listed pools approved for interaction.

Network Pools
Mainnet V2, AMM V2, V3 Core, V3 Prime
Polygon V2, V3
Avalanche V2, V3
Optimism V3
Arbitrum V3
Scroll V3
Base V3
BNB V3
Gnosis V3
Sonic V3
Linea V3

For each pool, ~$100 worth of each reserve will be sent to the DustBinSteward contract. The DustBin is a special contract that, as the name implies, holds a dust amount of tokens. This is done to ensure that the pools are never emptied and the PoolExposure module can operate without having to worry about possibly emptying a given reserve.

If the corresponding DustBin for a specific reserve holds about ~$100 worth of the token, then that token will not be transferred. If the DustBin does not yet have that token, the mentioned amount will be sent alongside this proposal.

Based on runway projections, historical swaps and future consolidation projections, the following initial budget for the SwapModule on Mainnet is proposed.

Asset Budget (units)
USDC 8M
USDT 9M
DAI 3M
MATIC 600k
LUSD 50k

The assets are to be used for acquiring AAVE, GHO and USDS as part of the Tokenomics upgrade and maintaining the runway.

Disclosure

TokenLogic does not receive any payment for this proposal.

Next Steps

  1. Gather feedback from the community.
  2. If consensus is reached on this ARFC, escalate this proposal to the Snapshot stage.
  3. If Snapshot outcome is YAE, escalate this proposal to the AIP stage.

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.

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