Aave has handed stewardship of the Lens Protocol to Masks Community, marking a strategic shift that narrows Aave’s focus again to decentralized finance.
This can place the subsequent section of decentralized social growth within the arms of a group extra tightly targeted on consumer-facing execution.
The transition was confirmed this week by statements from Aave and Lens founder Stani Kulechov, in addition to from Masks Community.
Aave Retains Advisory Function whereas giving Lens App Improvement to Masks Community
Kulechov stated Aave’s function in Lens will now be restricted to technical advisory help, describing the transfer as a refocus relatively than a retreat.
He defined that Aave initially expanded past onchain monetary primitives to construct social primitives that customers may personal, ensuing within the creation of Lens.
Over time, we now have constructed a number of the most essential onchain monetary primitives. We later expanded that ambition to social primitives that customers actually personal.
We constructed the Lens Protocol and its underlying onchain rails, together with state-of-the-art decentralized knowledge storage… https://t.co/g0zLIUlaBh— Stani.eth (@StaniKulechov) January 20, 2026
The unique intention, he stated, was to create impartial social infrastructure that builders may depend on to construct consumer-grade functions able to reaching mainstream customers.
With that basis now in place, stewardship is shifting to Masks Community, which is able to lead growth on the software and product layer whereas Aave returns to its core experience in DeFi.
Each Aave and Lens emphasised that the transfer is just not an acquisition, sale, or exit. There was no indication of a switch of protocol possession, mental property, treasuries, or governance management.
Lens’ core parts, together with its onchain social graph, profiles, follows, and good contracts, will stay open-source and permissionless.
Aave stated it can proceed to supply enter on protocol-level selections however will not lead product growth or function social functions immediately.
Masks Community, a Web3 firm recognized for integrating blockchain options into social and messaging platforms, will now assume accountability for consumer-facing execution.
This contains product roadmap selections, consumer expertise design, and day-to-day operational management for social functions constructed on Lens, similar to Orb.
In a press release asserting the transition, Lens stated the ecosystem’s subsequent section requires much less protocol experimentation and extra concentrate on unified social experiences that may function at scale and meet consumer expectations.
Lens was launched by Aave in 2022 as a Web3-native social protocol designed to provide customers possession over their social identities and content material by way of onchain profiles and NFTs.
From the outset, it was positioned as infrastructure relatively than a standalone social community.
Lens Enters Its Subsequent Chapter as Decentralized Social Features Momentum
Since launch, Lens has grown into one of the extensively used decentralized social protocols. Early builder adoption was fast, with greater than 50 initiatives constructed on Lens shortly after launch.
By early 2023, the protocol had surpassed 100,000 minted profiles and supported greater than 120 functions.
Lens later migrated to Polygon mainnet, rolled out V2 and V3 upgrades, and launched Lens Chain, a purpose-built community powered by ZKsync and Avail, aimed toward enhancing scalability, pace, and monetization.
Lens makes use of GHO as gasoline, enabling near-instant, low-cost transactions, and contains decentralized storage by way of Grove and options like Household Accounts.
The handover to Masks Community comes as decentralized social regains consideration throughout the crypto business.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated he plans to spend extra time on decentralized social platforms in 2026, arguing that higher mass communication instruments are wanted and that decentralization allows competitors by permitting a number of purchasers to construct on shared knowledge layers.
In 2026, I plan to be totally again to decentralized social.
If we wish a greater society, we want higher mass communication instruments. We’d like mass communication instruments that floor the most effective info and arguments and assist folks discover factors of settlement. We’d like mass communication… https://t.co/ye249HsojJ— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 21, 2026
Masks Community founder Suji Yan described the transition as aligned with the cypherpunk values on the coronary heart of crypto, saying decentralized social must be a part of on a regular basis life relatively than restricted to monetary merchandise.
Lens stands for decentralization and the cypherpunk spirit on the coronary heart of blockchain/crypto.
Crypto shouldn’t be simply monetary merchandise — it must be a part of on a regular basis life, in each submit, each interplay. Personal your submit – and make SocialFi nice once more.
Honored to… https://t.co/EjR7PFqWjB— Suji Yan
(@suji_yan) January 20, 2026
He stated Masks Community intends to concentrate on constructing consumer-ready SocialFi functions that deliver Lens from infrastructure into day by day use.
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