Kraken's parent company Payward is in talks to pay approximately 35,000 ETH, worth roughly $71 million, for a 15% common equity stake in Aave Group, the corporate entity that operates the DeFi lending protocol, and 250,000 AAVE tokens. The reported terms imply a $385 million valuation for Aave Group. CoinDesk, which first reported the deal on June 25, 2026, cited three anonymous sources; CryptoBriefing independently confirmed the stake size and valuation.
No deal has been signed. Kraken declined to comment; Aave Group did not respond by publication.
The investment would be the first for Payward Asset Management, the exchange operator's newly formed investment arm. Payward raised at a $20 billion valuation in May 2026 as it prepares for a potential public listing. In April 2026, it agreed to acquire derivatives exchange Bitnomial for up to $550 million, a deal that adds CFTC futures and options licenses.
The talks follow a damaging spring for Aave. In April 2026, Lazarus Group-linked attackers exploited KelpDAO to mint roughly $292 million in unbacked rsETH, leaving Aave with an estimated $190 million to $230 million in bad debt and triggering over $8 billion in user withdrawals. Aave's own smart contracts were not compromised.
A common equity stake in Aave Group is structurally distinct from the token purchases exchanges typically make in DeFi: it would give Payward direct ownership of the corporate entity that develops and administers the protocol.
