Kraken Parent Payward Buys AAVE Stake, Terms Undisclosed

Payward, the company whose infrastructure runs Kraken, said on 5 November 2026 that Digital Asset Special Investments I, LP, a fund tied to Payward, and its asset management clients bought an undisclosed amount of AAVE. The tokens were bought on the secondary market, from existing holders rather than from the Aave protocol, and Payward said it may buy more.

There is no size to the deal in Payward's announcement, and none in Aave's own post about it. No token count, no purchase price. Both sides call the amount undisclosed, so a figure you see elsewhere is someone's estimate, not Payward's number.

If you hold AAVE, the change is who owns a slice of the token, not how many exist.

Payward Bought AAVE on the Secondary Market, Not From Aave

A secondary market purchase moves tokens between a buyer and a seller who already owned them. Aave issued no new AAVE for this, and the protocol treasury did not receive the money. What shifted is the holder register, and the buyer here is a fund connected to one of the larger exchange groups in crypto.

The buying entity is specific. Digital Asset Special Investments I, LP is Payward-affiliated, and it took the position alongside its asset management clients, not as an exchange order book trade.

What Payward and Aave Said

Gurpreet Oberoi, vice president of Payward Asset Management and Institutional, gave the reasoning this way: "Onchain lending is quickly becoming an important part of the financial system, and Aave has established itself as one of the foundational protocols powering that shift." He added that the investment reflects long-term conviction in onchain credit markets and DeFi, and growing client demand for exposure to that infrastructure.

Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave Labs, tied the deal to the Aave Will Win framework, saying it commits Aave Labs to growing the ecosystem and directing value back to the DAO and AAVE holders. "Working with Payward is a strategic step toward bringing Aave to the next wave of retail and institutional users," he said.

That framework was approved earlier this year. Under it, Aave Labs has committed to sending revenue from Aave-branded products to the Aave DAO treasury, on top of the network fees it already receives.

Kraken Already Routes Users Into Aave

This is not the first line between the two. Kraken runs DeFi Earn, a product that gives its users DeFi yields without leaving the exchange, and Aave's blog says the product is powered by Aave. Funds are converted to USDC if needed and deposited into a vault on the Ink network, which then supplies liquidity to lending protocols including Aave.

So a Kraken customer can already earn yield through Aave without opening a wallet. Payward buying the token is a different move: exposure held on the group's own side, rather than a product sold to customers.

Aave's Deposits, and a $1 Billion Loan-Book Gap

Payward's release and Aave's blog agree on net deposits: $33 billion. They disagree on active loans. Payward says $11 billion; Aave's own post says $12 billion. Neither figure carries a timestamp, and the two posts landed around the same time, so the gap is either a timing lag or a difference in how each side counts. Worth knowing before you quote either number.

Aave's blog calls the network the largest and most trusted onchain lending market. That is Aave describing itself, not an outside ranking.

What Is Still Unknown

Neither Payward's release nor Aave's blog mentions any equity investment in Aave Group. Both confirmed the two sides are exploring ways to work together, without saying what those could be or when.

Payward has said it may buy more AAVE. Beyond that, the open items are the ones both sides left out: the amount, the price, and what any collaboration would actually look like.