Kraken Acquires 15% Aave Stake for 35,000 ETH in $71M Deal

Payward swaps 35,000 ETH for 250,000 AAVE tokens, valuing protocol at $3.85B. This marks Kraken's entry into DeFi asset management despite prior security incidents.

Woofun AI reports that Payward, parent of Kraken, is negotiating to acquire a 15% stake in Aave Group. The agreement entails exchanging 35,000 ETH for 250,000 AAVE tokens, establishing a $3.85 billion valuation and a transaction value of approximately $71 million. Kraken intends to co-finance this acquisition, which serves as the initial move in Payward's asset management strategy.

Aave remains the leading decentralized lending protocol, although it previously suffered a crisis in April involving a KelpDAO bridge exploit that caused $190 million to $230 million in bad debt and triggered over $8 billion in withdrawals. Kraken has recently expanded its footprint, including a planned acquisition of Bitnomial for up to $550 million and a reported financing round at a $20 billion valuation.