Aave’s Kulechov Says V4 Spokes Will Drive Liquidity, Fees

Aave founder Stani Kulechov is putting the spotlight on “spokes,” a planned feature in the protocol’s V4 design that he says could widen liquidity and open new revenue lines for the DAO.

In a post on X on June 15, Kulechov said Aave V4 spokes are “important for Aave” because they can function as lending markets that scale across broad or highly customized use cases. The basic idea is simple: Aave keeps its core liquidity, then extends it through specialist partners that build around that pool.

That matters because DeFi does not sit still. New products, new market structures and new chains appear fast, and Kulechov argued Aave cannot build every feature in-house without losing speed. He said the spoke model lets the protocol plug into teams with deeper expertise in areas such as automated market makers, perpetual futures, fixed-rate lending and custody for crypto assets or securities.

For outside developers, the pitch is access to Aave’s liquidity and distribution. For Aave, the appeal is sharper execution and more ways to monetize the protocol. Kulechov said the DAO would earn revenue through fee sharing, with spokes implemented as a direct protocol-level extension rather than a loose partnership layer.

That framing points to a broader shift in DeFi. Lending protocols are no longer being judged only on borrowing rates and collateral depth. They are being pushed to act more like platforms, with modular products built on top of the core balance sheet. If Aave V4 spokes work as described, Aave could become a hub for third-party financial products instead of just a lending venue.

Still, the plan lives or dies on execution. Partnerships have to attract volume, fee splits have to be competitive, and the design must avoid fragmenting liquidity instead of concentrating it. Traders will want to watch for the next V4 update, the first named spoke partners and any details on how fees flow back to Aave DAO.