AAVE, the native token of decentralized lending protocol Aave, has fallen 20% in a week as tensions rise between token holders and Aave Labs.

After a proposal for transferring brand assets from Aave Labs to a DAO-controlled entity was rushed to a snapshot vote, more than 58% of votes were against it passing, while an overwhelming 37% of voters chose to abstain.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

The top three “nay” voters represented the majority of tokens used to vote. Onchain data shows that Aave founder Stani Kulechov bought $5 million in AAVE tokens this week.

“Labs clearly not acting in good faith – cheeky vote like this w/ no comms to holders is empirical proof,” wrote one user who voted to abstain.

According to MoonRock Capital Partner Simon Dedic, both sides are wrong. In his view, all protocol value should flow through to token holders, but Aave Labs should keep control of brand assets to effectively build the protocol.

“The DAO taking over Aave would likely be the worst possible outcome – not just for Aave, but for DeFi as a whole,” he said.