In June, Payward, the parent company of Kraken, was in talks over 250,000 AAVE tokens and a 15% equity stake in Aave Group at a $385 million valuation. Aave founder Stani Kulechov publicly pushed back on the reported terms. Payward and its asset management clients have now bought AAVE tokens on the open market instead.

The purchase went through Digital Asset Special Investments I, LP, a Payward-affiliated fund. The size of the position was not disclosed, and the announcement made no mention of an equity component.

Aave currently holds about $33 billion in net deposits and $11 billion in active loans.

Gurpreet Oberoi, VP of Payward asset management, said the investment reflects "long-term conviction in onchain credit markets and DeFi". Buying on the secondary market rather than directly from Aave reportedly paves the way for future collaboration between the two companies.