According to the source, Kraken is evaluating the stock-taking decentrized lending agreement, Aave, to acquire 15 per cent of its shares. If the transaction is concluded, the corresponding valuation for Aave is approximately $385 million. The deal also appeared in Aave after the impact of the April risk event, indicating that the head platform remained focused on DeFi infrastructure assets.

The size of the deal is about $71 million.

According to CoinDesk ' s sources, Kraken may have traded 35,000 ETH in exchange for 250,000 AAVE tokens and 15 per cent of Aave Group ' s general equity interest. Based on the relevant documents, the value of the transaction was approximately $71.0 million.

Two other sources stated that Kraken was also considering the introduction of other donors to the transaction in order to share the funds. The spokesperson for Kraken refused to comment, and Aave did not respond to the request for comment before the release of the report.

Aave is still digesting the April impact.

Aave is currently one of the largest DeFi lending agreements, in which users can deposit the proceeds of an encrypted asset in a chain or borrow other coins through a mortgage.

In April this year, KelpDAO was attacked on the bridge. According to reports, the attackers associated with the North Korean Lazarus Group forged about $292 million of unsupported rsETH and deposited it as collateral in Aave to lend out real assets.

After the collateral value was zero, Aave left behind about $190 million to $230 million in bad debts. Although Aave’s own smart contract was not broken, the incident triggered the withdrawal of more than $8 billion, reflecting the risk transfer problem between the DeFi agreement.

Payward continues to expand for potential IPOs.

This potential investment is also linked to the expansion plans of the Kraken parent company Payward. According to the source, this could be the first of a series of transactions by Payward Assembly Management, which is directed towards more active participation in DeFi and other investment opportunities.

Payward has accelerated the M&A tempo in recent months, with the goal of complementing the regulated transaction infrastructure and expanding the multi-asset platform layout before potential listing. In April, Payward agreed to purchase up to $550 million of the encryption derivatives exchange Bitnomial to complete United States brokering, clearing and exchange-related licences.

CoinDesk had also previously reported that Payward was seeking a new round of financing with a valuation of approximately $20 billion. If the Aave deal advances, it means that Kraken ' s expansion is no longer limited to spot and derivative transactions, but also begins to extend to DeFi ' s equity and token assets.