Attention, there’s something interesting happening in the Aave ecosystem lately. The internal conflict between the development team and the community has been ongoing for quite some time, nearly three months, and its effects are starting to show in the significantly declining TVL figures.

Aave’s TVL dropped from $36 billion to $26.5 billion during this period. That’s not a small number. Based on analysis from Yujin, there’s an intriguing factor behind this decline – Sun Zhen, who has apparently withdrawn around $910 million in stablecoins from Aave and moved it to other platforms, mainly Sky and Spark.

This movement is quite significant when viewed from a capital flow perspective. Since early December, Sun Zhen’s deposits in Sky and Spark grew from $570 million to $1.48 billion. This means Sky has now become the preferred platform, replacing Aave. This indicates that internal disputes do have tangible consequences on user trust.

From a broader perspective, this is an example of how governance disputes can directly impact liquidity flows in DeFi protocols. The community begins to seek alternatives when management uncertainty arises. Such conflicts often serve as a catalyst for competing protocols to attract users. It will be interesting to keep monitoring how this situation develops and whether Aave’s TVL can recover or continues to decline.

For those tracking DeFi movements, this is worth watching. You can check the latest data on Gate to see how Aave and similar protocols are currently positioned.