Aave Launches on Arc Without an AIP — Can Governance Catch Up?

Points of Focus

• Aave V4 launched on Arc with four assets.
• A five-member council activated it without an AIP.
• Tokenholders will receive direct control later.

Aave V4 went live on Circle’s Arc blockchain on Wednesday with USDC (USDC), EURC, Wrapped Ether (WETH), and cirBTC available from day one.

Arc Mainnet is live.

Built for programmable money, global markets, and agentic economic activity, Arc brings stablecoin-native infrastructure to builders and institutions from day one.

Explore what’s live on Arc: https://t.co/2dpsrq6vW3 pic.twitter.com/KzWq7sM8Bg

— Circle (@circle) September 16, 2026

The launch came without an Aave Improvement Proposal (AIP), the onchain voting process normally used to change the protocol. Instead, five members of Aave’s eight-person Protocol Security Council signed off on the final action.

That said, AAVE holders still had a say, having already approved the Arc market through a snapshot vote. However, that vote could not launch the market by itself.

Arc could not receive a normal Aave vote

While an AIP records how participants voted, it also packages an approved change into code that Aave’s governance system knows how to execute.

However, the new network launched on the same day as Aave’s market, even though its bridge to Aave governance was not ready. That bridge will eventually let decisions made through Aave’s main voting system reach Arc.

To manage this, Aave treated the earlier Snapshot vote as approval. The market had already been deployed in a paused state, though the Security Council then lifted that hold, allowing users to supply assets, borrow, and add liquidity.

Aave Labs justified the activation, stating it used the same logic as a traditional launch. Certora also reviewed the deployment, while the council uses the same members as Aave’s security councils on Ethereum and Avalanche. Aave Labs also published a technical assessment of Arc.

A temporary shortcut needs rectification

The approach allowed Aave to reach Arc on launch day instead of waiting for every governance tool to arrive. Aave expects its Arc market to provide the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) with at least $2 million in yearly revenue, with certain Arc participants covering the difference if the market earns less during the first five years.

Arc Mainnet is live.

Arc launches as the Economic OS for the internet: an open platform for global markets, real-time value movement, tokenized assets, and agentic economic activity.

Arc is more than a blockchain.

It launches as a full-stack financial platform with assets,… pic.twitter.com/SWg0NlUijO

— Arc (@arc) September 16, 2026

Tokenholders cannot yet use Aave’s normal process to send changes directly to Arc. The Security Council remains the group that can carry out those changes for now. Aave said later proposals will activate cross-chain governance once the needed tools are ready, though there is no proposed date for this.

Now, other decentralized finance protocols may deal with the same choice when expanding to a new blockchain. They’ll either have to wait for full governance support or let a smaller group manage the change.

Using a council might speed up a process, but users are promised that full governance will eventually come to be.

Aave’s Arc market was approved by its community, reviewed by security firms, and launched with public settings, but it still needs to give holders control.