Aave Labs' UK subsidiaries, Push Labs Ltd. and Push Virtual Assets Ltd., secured registration as cryptoasset exchange providers from the Financial Conduct Authority on May 28. The FCA approval complements a MiCAR CASP license from the Central Bank of Ireland obtained in November 2025, giving Aave a dual-permission framework covering both the UK and the European Economic Area. That regulatory stack clears the path for zero-fee fiat-to-stablecoin on and off-ramps — a critical step for the largest on-chain credit market.
FCA greenlights Push entities
The two UK subsidiaries are the regulated front door to Aave's lending protocol. Push Labs Ltd. and Push Virtual Assets Ltd. together provide the infrastructure to convert bank accounts into stablecoins, which then flow into GHO, sGHO savings, and lending or borrowing on Aave. The FCA registration means those functions now have explicit regulatory cover in the UK, a jurisdiction that has been tightening crypto rules since the 2023 Financial Services and Markets Act.
Dual licensing across UK and EEA
Push Virtual Assets Ireland Limited already held a MiCAR CASP license from the Central Bank of Ireland from last November. With the UK registration in hand, Aave operates under two parallel regimes — one for the UK, one for the EEA. That matters because the user journey Push enables (bank account → zero-fee stablecoin ramp → Aave App → savings or borrowing) needs to comply with local laws on both sides of the Channel. Aave now has that covered.
How Push turns bank accounts into stablecoins
The core product is simple: users move money from a regular bank account into a stablecoin without paying exchange fees. From there, the stablecoins enter Aave's lending pools or get swapped into GHO, Aave's native stablecoin. GHO's circulating supply is near 584 million tokens, tiny compared to USDT's $188 billion and USDC's $76 billion, but Aave already generates over $633 million in annualized fees and $81 million in annualized revenue, according to DefiLlama data. The regulated ramp could widen that base.
Aave's $633M fee machine and the AIP 469 vote
The licensing news lands just after a major governance decision. AIP 469 passed with roughly 75% of participating tokens, establishing the 'Aave Will Win' framework: 100% of revenue from all Aave-branded products goes to the DAO treasury, while Aave Labs received a $25 million stablecoin grant and 75,000 AAVE vesting over 48 months. The Aave Chan Initiative (ACI) cast 166,200 tokens against the proposal and announced it would wind down entirely by July. Marc Zeller's February governance audit tallied Aave Labs' total capitalization at approximately $86 million, and found that Horizon, Aave's RWA marketplace, had a spending-to-revenue ratio of roughly 24:1.
The ACI exit deadline is July — a concrete next step in the governance shake-up. Meanwhile, the FCA registration opens the door for UK users to access Aave's lending market through a fully regulated channel, no zero-fee ramp required.
