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Payward, the company behind crypto exchange Kraken, has gone shopping in the decentralized finance aisle. The firm and its asset management clients have bought an undisclosed amount of AAVE tokens, according to an announcement made Thursday.
The move extends Payward’s push into asset management and decentralized finance, or DeFi. DeFi covers financial services that run on blockchain software rather than through banks and brokers. Payward and Aave are also exploring further collaboration.
How the deal was structured
The tokens were acquired through Digital Asset Special Investments I, LP, an investment fund affiliated with Payward. The fund’s asset management clients also took part in the buying.
According to the research findings, the announcement was dated November 5, 2026. No dollar figure or token count was attached to it.
Notably, the purchase involves tokens only. There is no equity component this time, meaning Payward is not buying a slice of the company that develops Aave. It is buying exposure to the protocol’s token instead.
A relationship with history
This is not the first time Payward and Aave have discussed a deal. Earlier talks, disclosed in June 2026, centered on a much larger package.
That proposal included 250,000 AAVE tokens along with a 15% equity stake in Aave Group, at a valuation of $385 million. The arrangement was ultimately not realized.
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It also came with some drama. Aave founder Stani Kulechov publicly pushed back on claims that the offering undervalued the AAVE token, contesting the discount framing that circulated around the proposal.
The token purchase arrives without the equity stake that made the June package so contentious.
The operational ties between the companies run deeper than investment talks, too. Kraken launched its DeFi Earn product in January 2026, according to the research findings.
Earlier in 2026, Kraken also deployed a white-label instance of the Aave protocol on Ink, its Layer-2 network. A Layer-2 is a network built on top of a main blockchain, designed to process transactions more efficiently. A white-label deployment means Kraken runs its own branded version of Aave’s software.
What this means for Payward, Aave and the market
For Payward, the purchase fits a clear strategic pattern. The company is trying to grow beyond running an exchange and into managing assets, and DeFi is a central piece of that plan.
The research findings describe the investment as a strong vote of confidence in Aave’s leading role in the DeFi sector.
The research findings also frame Payward’s move as part of a broader trend in which established financial players are increasingly engaging with DeFi applications, bridging conventional finance and digital assets.
Still, the undisclosed amount makes it impossible to judge the purchase’s scale. A modest allocation and a massive one would both fit the same announcement.
