Aave Labs announced on May 28 that two of its UK subsidiaries, Push Labs Ltd. and Push Virtual Assets Ltd., have been registered by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to operate as crypto asset exchange providers in the United Kingdom.
The FCA approval also authorizes the firms to issue electronic money under the UK’s Electronic Money Regulations 2011.
Aave Expands into Regulated Crypto Services
In a post on X, Aave said the approvals enable “regulated cryptoasset activities and payments infrastructure” in the UK, including stablecoin on- and off-ramping services. The two companies received firm reference numbers 1031720 and 1031721, while Push’s electronic money authorization carries reference number 900984.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov said the structure will allow users to move fiat currency directly into the Aave ecosystem via what he described as a “vertically integrated zero-fee on-ramp.” He also tied the FCA registration to Aave’s broader regulatory strategy in Europe, noting the company’s planned MiCA license through the Central Bank of Ireland for operations across the European Economic Area.
The announcement arrives amid a busy period for the protocol. Earlier this week, Aave published a governance “Temp Check” proposal to deploy Aave V4 on Avalanche, including a dedicated liquidity hub for tokenized real-world assets. Former Ava Labs executive Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo commented that Avalanche has a significant opportunity to build on-chain capital markets around the new protocol version.
At the same time, the wider decentralized finance (DeFi) sector is facing renewed scrutiny after several major exploits earlier this year. Security concerns have intensified to the point that industry voices have publicly warned about widespread risk in DeFi. One notable critic said AI-assisted coding tools have shifted the advantage toward attackers and listed Aave among platforms he no longer considers safe.
Aave was impacted by an April exploit involving KelpDAO. Community discussion has emphasized the protocol’s response: Aave DAO used roughly $58 million from its treasury to help cover losses for rsETH depositors affected by the incident. An April 25 report on the recovery effort noted that Kulechov personally contributed 5,000 ETH to the “DeFi United” initiative established to stabilize markets after the exploit, which had created a significant shortfall across connected protocols.
AAVE Token Performance
Despite the FCA approval news, market data showed Aave’s native AAVE token had fallen about 5% over the previous 24 hours, trading near $81 at the time of reporting. That decline followed a nearly 10% drop over the prior seven days and a roughly 17% fall over the past month. Nevertheless, Aave remains among the largest DeFi lending protocols, with more than $13.6 billion in total value locked (TVL).