Aave DAO Faces Governance Strain as Chaos Labs Exits Protocol Work

The claim is strongly supported by the primary source, "Chaos Labs Is Leaving Aave." In that post, Chaos Labs explicitly says it is 'stepping down' and 'seeking to proactively terminate our engagement,' and explains that it has been handling Aave risk since November 2022, which is broadly consistent with a roughly three-year tenure. The same post directly cites disagreements over how risk should be managed, says other core contributors' departures increased operational burden, says Aave V4 expands the operational and legal burden, and says the engagement had run at a loss for three years. "Chaos Labs Terminates Aave Engagement Citing Risk Misalignment and Inadequate Funding - \"The Defiant\"" independently summarizes these points and contextualizes them as part of a broader governance crisis. The broader headline framing that 'Aave DAO faces governance strain' is somewhat interpretive, but it is supported by "Aave governance rift deepens as major governance group exits $26 billion DeFi protocol," which documents significant recent governance disputes and contributor exits. The only mild caveat is that 'core contributor role' is a descriptive summary rather than an exact quoted title from the forum post, but it accurately reflects the substance.