Lending protocol circle recently experienced a wave of internal governance turmoil. In December last year, token holders and the development team clashed fiercely on the governance platform, with the core dispute over front-end fees and the profits from new products—who should get what. The community believed that the team was pocketing all these funds, leaving the DAO treasury empty, leading to intense opposition between the two sides. At that time, a proposal was made to regain control of the brand, but 55% of voters opposed it, causing the token price to drop by 10% that day.

Seeing the potential for this issue to cause long-term community division, the founder suddenly proposed a new plan on January 3rd—"External Protocol Revenue Sharing." His idea was this: any high-value products developed by the development team that are not directly related to the core protocol, and generate profits, should be shared with token holders. Especially for the real-world asset market worth $5 million, the institutional-grade services generating revenue should also give AAVE holders a share.

This shift is quite interesting—moving from exclusive team control to profit sharing, effectively returning the protocol's cash flow. This approach actually touches on a common pain point in many DeFi projects: how to distribute value-added service profits to balance team incentives and community interests. How this event concludes may serve as a reference for other protocols.