February 2026 - Funding Update

Simple Summary

This publication presents the February Funding Update, consisting of the following key activities:

• Runway: Acquire GHO to support operational runway.
• GHO liquidity: Expand Ahab & AFC SAFEs remit to support GHO liquidity.
• Operations: Create allowances to support ongoing operations.

Motivation

This publication addresses near-term operational requirements, consolidates asset holdings, and renews allowances to the MainnetSwapSteward to optimise the DAO’s stablecoin management.

The MainnetSwapSteward will continue executing a rolling GHO acquisition strategy to maintain adequate runway and support AAVE buybacks, while preserving sufficient budget to fund ongoing growth initiatives.

Additionally, this publication initiates a process to reduce DEX and CEX GHO liquidity expenses by providing liquidity directly and indirectly across multiple pools.

Specification

Runway

Using the MainnetSwapSteward and a portion of the ETH received from recent liquidation volume to acquire 2M GHO, to be deposited into the Prime instance.

Idle ETH

Deposits idle ETH held on the Ethereum Collector, received from recent liquidation volume, into the Aave v3 Core instance. The resulting aWETH is then used to fund the Ahab and Liquidity allowances detailed below.

Operations

Create allowances for the following assets to be transferred from the Treasury to the AFC:

• Asset: AAVE (0x7Fc66500c84A76Ad7e9c93437bFc5Ac33E2DDaE9)
• Amount: 100,000
• Spender: AFC SAFE (0x22740deBa78d5a0c24C58C740e3715ec29de1bFa)
• Method: approve() AAVE on the Aave Collector contract to the AFC address

This allowance enables the AAVE acquired via buybacks to be held on the AFC SAFE. The allowance is larger than the current balance to facilitate future buybacks and minimise governance overhead.

Extend Ahab Capacity

Extends Ahab allowances to support upcoming business initiatives and recent asset price changes. The aWETH allowance is sourced from the idle ETH deposited into Aave v3 Core above, where it is to be used as collateral to fund incentive programs via GHO debt:

• Asset: aEthWETH (0x4d5F47FA6A74757f35C14fD3a6Ef8E3C9BC514E8), Amount: 4,000
• Asset: aEthwstETH (0x0B925eD163218f6662a35e0f0371Ac234f9E9371), Amount: 1,100
• Spender: Ahab SAFE (0xAA2461f0f0A3dE5fEAF3273eAe16DEF861cf594e)

Extend AAVE/wETH Liquidity

Create allowances for the Aave Liquidity SAFE to deploy AAVE and wETH liquidity across DEXs:

• Asset: AAVE (0x7Fc66500c84A76Ad7e9c93437bFc5Ac33E2DDaE9), Amount: 40,000 (from Ecosystem Reserve)
• Asset: aEthWETH (0x4d5F47FA6A74757f35C14fD3a6Ef8E3C9BC514E8), Amount: 1,500 (from Aave Collector)
• Spender: Aave Liquidity SAFE (0xAAA973Fe8A6202947e21D0a3a43d8E83ABE35C23)

GHO CEX Liquidity

Create a USDe allowance to provide inventory for supporting USDT/GHO liquidity across centralised exchanges:

• Asset: USDe (0x4c9EDD5852cd905f086C759E8383e09bff1E68B3), Amount: 6,000,000
• Spender: CEX Earn SAFE (0xAA12BAd4a501d45A5b771e49C2Fd415BA8BFc79d)

The Finance Steward will be used to withdraw USDe from the protocol to fund this allowance. The allowance exceeds the Collector's current USDe balance to accommodate the withdrawal and support future operations.

MainnetSwapSteward Allowances

Replenish allowances on the MainnetSwapSteward to support continued AAVE and GHO buybacks:

Token	Budget
ETH	3,000
USDC	5,000,000
USDT	5,000,000
USDe	5,000,000
USDS	2,000,000
DAI	2,000,000

Reimbursements

• Reimburse 1.470836210916653291 aEthWETH to ACI (0xac140648435d03f784879cd789130F22Ef588Fcd) for expenses incurred supporting Aave DAO governance and incentive campaigns.
• Reimburse 26,000 aEthLidoGHO to TokenLogic (0xAA088dfF3dcF619664094945028d44E779F19894) for audit expenses incurred.

References

• MainnetSwapSteward ARFC: https://governance.aave.com/t/arfc-steward-deployment-mainnetswapsteward-and-rewardssteward/23070
• Implementation: AaveV3Ethereum payload
• Tests: AaveV3Ethereum tests
• Snapshot: Direct-to-AIP
• Discussion: https://governance.aave.com/t/direct-to-aip-february-2026-funding-update/24030

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.