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SEC Ends Four-Year Probe Into Aave
Plus: 🏛️ Aave DAO feud escalates, 🛡️ Solana shrugs off massive DDoS attack.
Juan Aranovich
December 19, 2025
Hi! In today’s edition:
🏛️ SEC closes its multi-year investigation into Aave with no charges
⚔️ AAVE whale proposes a “poison pill” to seize Aave Labs
🛡️ Solana survives a week long 6 Tbps DDoS attack unscathed
🎙️ Bits + Bips explores what could ignite the next crypto bull cycle
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By Tikta
SEC Ends Four-Year Probe Into Aave
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has closed its nearly four‑year investigation into decentralized lending protocol Aave without recommending any enforcement action, according to Aave founder Stani Kulechov.
“DeFi has faced unfair regulatory pressure in recent years. We’re glad to put this behind us as we enter a new era where developers can truly build the future of finance,” said Kulechov, sharing a copy of the SEC’s enforcement closure letter on X.
Aave’s native token AAVE rallied 7% after the news to an intraday high of $195 before retreating to around $185 as of Tuesday evening.
Earlier this month, tokenization platform Ondo Finance also revealed that the SEC had closed a multi-year investigation into its platform.
The New York Times reported that the SEC has dropped 60% of crypto-related cases after Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office.
‘Poison Pill’ Proposal Calls for Aave DAO to Take Over Aave Labs
Regulatory scrutiny tied to the Aave ecosystem might have come to an end, but it remains under fire from disgruntled community members.
A large AAVE token holder “tulipking” has introduced an extremely aggressive “poison pill” governance proposal aimed at forcing Aave Labs’ assets and revenue under full control of the Aave DAO.
The proposal asks the DAO to immediately authorize legal action to seize all of Aave Labs’ code, intellectual property, and brand rights, effectively claiming full ownership of the Aave stack for the DAO.
It also seeks 100% of Aave Labs’ equity and all past revenue from Aave‑branded products, with recovered funds to be sent to the DAO treasury.
Tensions escalated after Aave Labs integrated CoW Swap into Aave’s front-end interface and redirected swap fees to an address viewed as being controlled by Labs rather than the DAO treasury.
Aave Labs and founder Stani Kulechov have pushed back on the criticism, arguing that the redirected fees are discretionary interface monetization rather than protocol fees owed to the DAO.
Uneasy Money is LIVE today!
At 3pm ET, hosts Kain Warwick, Taylor Monahan, and Luca Netz are joined by Ethena’s Guy Young. They'll get into Firedancer, Aave's civil war, Rushi Manche’s new venture, the new “fake Zoom” crypto scams, and more.
Solana Withstands Week-Long DDoS Attack
Solana's blockchain network appears unimpacted after a massive DDoS attack peaking at 6 terabits per second (Tbps), described as one of the largest in history.
The attack lasted over a week, targeting Solana's infrastructure during high-activity periods like the Breakpoint event, yet causing zero downtime or performance degradation.
A Denial of Service (DoS) attack occurs when an attacker uses a single device to inundate a target with excessive traffic, overwhelming its systems and disrupting normal operations.
Last week, Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko described the attack as “bullish,” saying “someone is spending as much as the chain makes in revenue to send it bits.”
The Sui network, which was also targeted by a DDoS attack, experienced degraded performance and transaction delays earlier in the week.
Bits + Bips: What Could Spark the Next Crypto Bull Cycle?
As Wall Street tokenizes everything, a deeper battle is brewing over market structure — and which chain institutions will actually trust.
On this episode of Bits + Bips, hosts Ram Ahluwalia, Austin Campbell, and Chris Perkins are joined by Elisabeth Kirby, Head of Market Structure at Tradeweb, for a wide-ranging conversation about the future of crypto markets — and who will control them.
They unpack why US market structure legislation stalled, how the SEC’s enforcement-first approach shaped the last cycle, and what it signals that JPMorgan, BlackRock, and others are moving forward with tokenization.
The group debates whether Ethereum’s institutional edge is durable, whether Canton can scale beyond early adopters, and why Solana’s “decentralized Nasdaq” vision still faces hard questions.
The episode closes with a sober look at macro conditions, risk appetite, and why crypto may be stuck waiting, even as the long-term institutional thesis quietly strengthens.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Decentralized data is the future — that’s why Unchained stores its media library on Walrus. With lightning-fast performance, unparalleled reliability, and granular access controls, your data is secure and dependable, no matter what.
📑 The U.S. FDIC proposed its first stablecoin rule under the GENIUS Act, outlining how regulated banks can apply to issue dollar-backed tokens through subsidiaries while opening a 60-day public comment period.
💻 Coinbase and Robinhood joined a new U.S. government “Tech Force” program that recruits about 1,000 engineers from major tech firms to work inside federal agencies on AI, cybersecurity, and digital infrastructure projects.
🇬🇧 U.K. regulators opened a sweeping public consultation on new crypto rules covering token listings, exchanges, DeFi, and staking, signaling plans to regulate digital assets much like traditional finance by 2027.
🏦 Custodia Bank asked a federal appeals court to rehear its case against the Federal Reserve “en banc,” arguing that being denied a master account raises constitutional and states’ rights concerns critical to operating a national bank.
🏛️🔍 Senator Elizabeth Warren warned federal officials about national security and money-laundering risks tied to decentralized exchanges, highlighting PancakeSwap’s role in moving stolen funds and trading the Trump-linked USD1 stablecoin while pressing agencies to explain what oversight gaps still exist.
🛡️ U.S. Senators Elissa Slotkin and Jerry Moran introduced a bipartisan bill to create a federal task force uniting regulators, law enforcement, and industry experts to better detect, track, and disrupt crypto-related scams as digital fraud keeps rising.
📲 Self-custody wallet Exodus plans to launch a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin with MoonPay and M0 in early 2026, aiming to power simple payments and rewards inside its app without requiring users to understand crypto mechanics.
💳 Visa launched stablecoin settlement services in the U.S., allowing banks to move money using Circle’s USDC on the Solana blockchain as part of a broader push to modernize back-end payment systems.
💰 Hong Kong-based fintech RedotPay raised $107 million in a Series B round to expand its stablecoin-powered payments platform, citing over $10 billion in annualized transaction volume, more than $150 million in yearly revenue, and profitability.
⚡ Tether led an $8 million funding round into Speed, a Lightning Network payment processor handling $1.5 billion in yearly transactions, as part of its push to expand real-world USDT use on Bitcoin-based payment rails.
Ready for Merge is a podcast for investors, builders, and operators who want to stay informed on Ethereum and Bitcoin protocol development. Hosted by ChristineD. Kim, former host of Infinite Jungle and Mapping Out Eth.2.0, each episode breaks down core developer debates, protocol upgrades, and governance tradeoffs—without hype.
Listen now on:
