Decentralized autonomous organization

DAO treasuries top $25 billion for the first time: DeepDAO

Assets held in DAO treasuries have more than doubled since the beginning of 2023, according to DeepDAO.

Decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) treasuries are rapidly growing, having just surpassed a major milestone, according to DeepDAO.

According to figures from the DAO data platform, on March 31, total assets for all decentralized autonomous organizations reached a record $25.1 billion.

The treasury is the total sum of assets the DAO may use at its own discretion. It excludes DAO-managed but unowned assets such as staking accounts and reward fees.

Around $22 billion of that total is liquid with around $3.5 billion set aside for vesting, according to DeepDAO.

Remarkably, assets in DAO treasuries have more than doubled since the beginning of 2023, which is no mean feat during a bear market.

Eyal Eithcowich, founder of DeepDAO told Cointelegraph, “The first time we aggregated DAO treasuries on DeepDAO the total was $23M, so we’re seeing growth at the scale of a 1000X.”

Total DAO treasury assets. Source: DeepDAO

Furthermore, the figure of $25.1 billion represents around 40% of the total value locked for all of DeFi, as reported by DeFiLlama. This is currently $61.7 billion, having increased by 39% since the beginning of the year.

DeepDAO is a discovery and analytics engine for the DAO ecosystem that lists and analyzes financial and governance data for the fast-growing sector. DeepDAO reports that there are 12,108 DAOs, 2,353 of which are analyzed by the platform.

Related: DAO gets legal recognition in the US as Utah DAO Act passes

Eithcowich said that the big movers are layer 2 DAOs, with infrastructure now the leading category overtaking DeFi.

DeepDAO’s Daniel Bar said that, “For a long while only Uniswap and BitDAO were DAOs that held treasuries if more than $2 billion, but, this past week alone three gianst were added to the DeepDAO organizations ranking board: Arbitrum (over $4B) Optimism (over $5B) and Polygon (over $1B). This marked a point where total DAO treasuries aggregated by DeepDAO crossed $25B”

The Optimism Collective is the leader in terms of treasury funds, with $5.5 billion giving it a market share of 22%. Optimism is the second most popular Ethereum layer-2 solutions provider after Arbitrum One, according to L2beat.

However, Arbitrum has a slightly lower DAO treasury of $4.4 billion giving it a share of 17.5%.

The remaining DAOs comprising the top five are BitDAO, Uniswap and Polygon, with treasuries of $2.6 billion, $2.5 billion, and $1.5 billion respectively.

DeepDAO also reports that the most active DAO over the past week has been PancakeSwap with 66 decisions. The total number of decisions made for all DAOs analyzed over the past month was 3,300, a fall from February’s 3,700 decisions.

Web3 Gamer: Shrapnel wows at GDC, Undead Blocks hot take, Second Trip

LinksDAO likely to put in ‘compelling offer’ to buy Scottish golf course

If the final tally remains in favor of the purchase, the LinksDAO acquisition committee is expected to pitch an offer around $900,000 to purchase the Spey Bay Golf Club.

The decentralized autonomous organization-operated golf startup, LinksDAO, may soon put in an offer to purchase the newly marketed Spey Bay Golf Club in Scotland worth about $900,000. 

LinksDAO — self-described as a “global group of golf enthusiasts” that is on a mission to build the “world’s greatest golf community” — officially opened the proposal vote on Feb. 20, which came after a few weeks of informal deliberation.

It would be the DAO’s first ever golf course purchase.

While voting officially closes on Feb. 22 at 12pm Eastern Time, over 88% of the 4,100 LinksDAO tokenholders had already voted in favor of the proposal at time of writing.

If the final tally remains in favor of the purchase, the LinksDAO acquisition committee will meet with the relevant parties required to construct a “compelling offer” for the purchase of the club “with the full intent of successfully purchasing the golf course,” the proposal stated.

The current voting tally of LinksDAO tokenholders on the proposal to put in an offer for the Scottish golf course. Source: LinksDAO

The authors of the proposal — “Bez,” “Jim,” “cbruce” and “nickwalkermsu” — explained that while much of the DAO’s research efforts have gone into finding a suitable golf course purchase in the United States, “this listing was too special to ignore.”

“In our search for our first golf course to purchase, we have identified a promising property in Scotland called Spey Bay Golf Club. This vote is to determine if we should move forward with submitting an offer and working to purchase the course.”

The authors added that the course is “playable today,” and that its high ceiling to low price ratio makes it a worthy investment.

“Even a price of triple the ‘guide price’ would be cheaper than most mediocre courses we have assessed thus far in the US,” the authors explained.

As such, LinksDAO compressed the voting window to 48 hours in order to act swiftly on the potential purchase and hopefully get good price for the club:

“The timing of the sale requires us to act now should we decide to participate in the process. […] We intend to execute this purchase while maintaining velocity on our efforts to acquire course(s) in the US.”

LinksDAO is expecting to pitch an offer in the vicinity of $900,000, which is roughly its current market value, according to Golf Business News.

The 18-hole golf course is located in Fochabers, about a three-and-a-half-hour drive away from Scotland’s capital city of Edinburgh.

The DAO explained the potential purchase would be financed with capital from its fundraise and that it would transfer funds from its treasury to a corporate bank account to support ongoing operations.

The authors of the proposal noted that this would occur within 30 days of the purchase.

LinksDAO officially established itself as a DAO in January 2022, which came on the back of a $10.5 million fundraising effort where more than 9,000 of its “leisure” and “global” membership NFTs were sold on OpenSea in a short 24-hour period.

There are now 5,302 owners of LinksDAO memberships, which are issued on the Ethereum network, according to nonfungible token marketplace OpenSea.

The average floor price of the memberships is 0.29 Ether (ETH), or about $480 at current prices.

Related: Types of DAOs and how to create a decentralized autonomous organization

While it is not known how much is in the LinksDAO treasury, the LinksDAO market cap is currently $4.34 million, according to CoinGecko.

NBA superstar Stephen Curry is a notable figure to have invested in a LinksDAO membership. However it is not known whether he is still a token holder.

DeFi, DAOs and NFTs: Crypto is redefining how charities raise funds

Crypto donations are so much more than just peer-to-peer Bitcoin and Ether transactions.

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) are redefining how charities raise donations and distribute funds to those most in need. 

Through ever-evolving crypto and blockchain-related technology, crypto philanthropists told Cointelegraph that they’ve witnessed “new wealth distribution mechanisms” never seen before. 

“Philanthropy has traditionally been seen as a high-cost-of-entry, individualistic activity, but with Web3, collective decision-making bodies like DAOs can use tools that streamline financial coordination and encourage more participation,” explained Omar Antila, Product Lead at Crypto for Charity.

“Crypto enables new innovative fundraising strategies, like charitable NFT-drop campaigns, or allowing people to pool their crypto funds in DeFi protocols that earn interest for a specific cause,” he added.

In October 2022, several breast cancer-focused organizations started implementing NFTs to highlight Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 

Antila noted that he had seen many other philanthropic communities built around NFTs, which have raised support for many other causes in need, such as testicular cancer, human trafficking and the war in Ukraine.

Last year, UkraineDAO crowdfunded $6.1 million for a 1/1 Ukrainian flag NFT. Proceeds were donated to nonprofit organizations in Ukraine helping those affected by the Russian invasion.

Blockchain technology is primed to expand on what is currently possible in the nonprofit sector. Source: Moralis.io

Meanwhile, Anne Connelly, the co-author of “Bitcoin and the Future of Fundraising,” believes the crypto charity sector will soon expand from Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) as the leading cryptocurrencies for donations:

“Over time, however, we’ll see organizations accepting a much larger spread of tokens — similar to how they would accept gifts of securities. We’ll also see gifts of NFTs and other tokenized assets like real estate or collectibles.”

“I believe that once […] more organizations realize the philanthropic potential of this donor segment, every organization will have a crypto donation platform, the same way every organization accepts credit cards,” she added.

Antila said the wide-reaching nature of crypto means that the total addressable market for crypto charity is huge too.

Antila believes the “2 billion or so unbanked adults that exist in the world today” will soon have the tools “to participate in the global economy, transact and create wealth without third parties getting in the way or taking a cut.”

Related: Charities risk losing a generation of donors if they don’t accept crypto

More and more people and small businesses in underdeveloped countries are implementing Bitcoin and crypto for payments. Source: Cointelegraph.

This could be especially true for countries suffering from a lack of trust in their state’s monetary system, where crypto adoption rates are also the highest.

Connelly said adoption rates are highest in undeveloped nations — most notably Nigeria, Argentina, Vietnam and South Africa — because they simply cannot trust their state’s monetary system:

“Over half the world’s population lives under double, triple, or quadruple inflation rates. For most people, they can’t trust their governments to effectively manage the monetary system.

“Having the choice to use crypto is an important option for citizens, but also shows governments that if they want people to use their fiat currency, they will need to clean up their act,” she added.

Ooki DAO misses lawsuit response deadline, default judgment on the cards

The commodities regulator has begun the process of getting a court ruling on the Ooki DAO case after the latter failed to respond to the lawsuit by the deadline.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has begun the process of getting a default judgment in its case against Ooki DAO after the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) missed the deadline to respond to the lawsuit. 

According to a Jan. 11 court filing, the regulator has requested the court for an “entry of default” against the DAO, stating it had missed the deadline to “answer or otherwise defend” as instructed by the summons. 

If approved, the entry of default will establish Ooki DAO has failed to plead or defend itself in court and will no longer be able to answer or respond to the suit.

An “entry of default” is the first step in the process of gaining a default judgment — a ruling handed down by the court when the defendant fails to defend a lawsuit.

Cast your vote now!

The lawsuit in question was filed by the CFTC on Sept. 22, accusing Ooki DAO of illegally offering “leveraged and margined” digital asset commodity transactions to retail traders along with failing to enact a way to identify customers and “engaging in activities only registered futures commission merchants (FCM) can perform.”

Related: CFTC action shows why crypto developers should get ready to leave the US

The lawsuit was served to the DAO through its help chat box along with a notice on its online forum.

In December, District Judge William Orrick ordered the regulator to serve Tom Bean and Kyle Kistner, the founders of a predecessor trading platform to Ooki DAO, adding the CFTC “should serve at least one identifiable Token Holder if that is possible.”

Bringing forward the lawsuit without clear regulatory guidelines had many criticize the regulator. CFTC commissioner Summer Mersinger even called the action a “regulation by enforcement” approach.

The case could set an interesting precedent for future lawsuits involving DAOs as charges and enforcement will be carried out against an organizational structure with no central body that often includes anonymous members.

In a Dec. 20 court filing, Judge Orrick said Ooki DAO “has the capacity to be sued as an unincorporated association under state law” but that does not “necessarily establish” that the DAO is an association that can be held liable under commodities regulations.

He added those questions can be addressed “later in litigation”

Israel’s chief economist lays out recommendations for crypto regulation

The chief economist said the Supervisor of Financial Service Providers and the Israel Securities Authority should be granted more powers to oversee the industry.

Israel’s chief economist has laid out a list of recommendations as to how policymakers should tackle digital asset laws in the country in order to safely drive up crypto adoption.

In a 109-page report submitted to the Minister of Finance on Nov. 28, Shira Greenberg, chief economist at the Ministry of Finance, called for a more comprehensive regulatory framework that would bring trading platforms and crypto issuers in line and would expand the powers given to its financial regulators. 

Greenberg recommended Israel should improve investor certainty and protection by imposing stricter licensing requirements on trading platforms and issuers of cryptocurrencies, as well as ensuring funds originating from digital assets are more safely managed.

She also recommended the supervisor of financial service providers have broader powers to oversee licensing rules and develop a more comprehensive taxation framework for the buying and selling of digital assets.

Expanded powers for the Israel Securities Authority were also recommended by Greenberg, who stated the powers were needed in order to ascertain whether a digital asset falls within the scope of Israeli securities laws and to monitor the activity of payment service providers in the crypto space.

In regard to legislation, Greenberg made mention of the need to implement specific licensing and supervision rules for stablecoin issuers, along with a proposed establishment of an inter-ministerial committee to examine and regulate blockchain-based decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

She added it was important that policymakers and lawmakers take into account the concept of technological neutrality when implementing digital asset-related rules.

Minister of Finance Avigdor Lieberman praised Greenberg for her work, stating the report “constitutes the most comprehensive and up-to-date report currently available on this issue for government use” in Israel and that he expects the “report will serve as a basis for future decisions and legislation” on digital asset-related matters in the months to come.

Related: Israel’s regulator teases comprehensive crypto framework at ICC

Despite Israel often being referred to as a tech-savvy nation, the country hasn’t shown to be too crypto-obsessed thus far, having ranked 111th out of 146 countries in a recent global crypto adoption index conducted by blockchain data firm Chainalysis. 

Greenberg also referenced data in her report that states that Israeli residents have accounted for 21 million blockchain-based transactions in total, which only equates to 0.04% of all crypto transactions worldwide.

Meanwhile, only 2% of Israelis reported owning or using a crypto wallet.

More adoption appears to be on its way. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) recently announced on Oct. 24 that it intends to create a blockchain-based platform to expand its trading services to cryptocurrencies. In the same month, TASE also kicked off live tests for a pilot project involving the tokenization of digital bonds, which is expected to be completed in Q1 2023.

Government-issued licenses are finally being issued, too, with Israeli-based trading platform Bits of Gold becoming the first firm to receive a license from the Capital Markets Authority in Sep. 2022 to store digital currencies through their own secured custody wallet and provide certain digital asset-related services to banks.

Multisignature crypto wallets are the safest bet for DAOs

You can’t hang the fate of your decentralized autonomous organization on a single point of failure if you want it to succeed.

Decentralized autonomous organizations are paving the way toward community governance for any kind of company. We’re seeing new creative use cases for DAOs, such as GameFi comic books laying the foundation for collectible card game development and support from key players like Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin — who has claimed there is value in shared decision-making to eliminate acts of collusion. 

But on the other end of the spectrum, there are DAOs dissolving or running out of Ether (ETH) to pay back lenders, and there is also declining optimism. The number of critics is increasing along with their concern over the many attack vectors that affect projects. To put an end to this narrative, DAOs need to explore new structures to remain incorruptible. To that end, multisignature wallets are a necessary step toward users and contributors viewing DAOs as a secure alternative to centralized corporate structures and are a vital part of pushing this egalitarian approach to decision-making forward.

Not 100% safe, but close

The concern around safeguarding DAO funds has cast the biggest shadow over their egalitarian structure. Any resource investment into the DAO will be stored in its treasury, and a proper governance structure is non-negotiable. The first thing to make clear is that all Web3 projects and DAOs that want to ensure ongoing operations and future growth of their protocol need to maintain funds.

Making better spending and investment decisions should start with treasury management — especially when DeFi platforms such as bZx are facing hacks, with all members involved in the DAO’s governance team being held accountable for the protocol’s carelessness. There is no such thing as a 100% perfectly safe crypto wallet, but multisignature wallets protect against external hacking threats, as hackers would need access to more than one key to do so.

Not your keys, not your crypto

Large amounts of funds could tempt anyone, so DAOs that want to decrease the risk of unauthorized transactions or rug pulls will benefit from having multiple signatories approve every transaction. Crypto businesses are also prone to key-person risk, just like any traditional business. The benefits of multisignature wallets are twofold: They protect DAOs against malicious actors and against getting hacked.

Related: DAOs need to neutralize whales (and more) if they want better governance

The most notorious example of this kind of risk may still be QuadrigaCX, where the death of its crypto founder, Gerald Cotten — who was the sole possessor of the cryptographic keys to the exchange wallet — left funds worth $198,435,000 in an unrecoverable state. A multisignature arrangement will act as a backup, providing a risk hedge for the loss of a private key by allowing for the storage of multiple keys in different locations.

Multisignature wallets add that additional layer of security and transparency to transactions. One of the biggest misconceptions is that each transaction’s signing has to be unanimous. But for a successful key transaction, a threshold or a certain number of signers must be met — for example, three out of five owners — to ensure a majority vote and prevent one person from having full control. DAO teams can also create spending limits for wallet owners so that small purchases don’t require every owner of the wallet to sign. This will speed up operations.

Don’t give your keys to strangers

For individuals using a wallet for their own funds, having a second person signing off on their transactions isn’t necessary; but for those who are the custodian of an organization’s funds in which others have put in money or when people rely on that money for their livelihoods — for example, salaries — it’s imperative. It would be not only foolhardy but also immoral to hold the fate of an organization to a single point of failure.

Related: Waves founder: DAOs will never work without fixing governance

Some people believe it’s a question of whether to form a DAO or make use of a multisignature wallet — as if the two are at opposite ends of a spectrum. But using multisignature wallets actually lowers the risk of undercutting the group’s objective. It also doesn’t mean that Web3 projects and DAOs are trading decentralization for the ability to process a transaction with higher executability. This is as decentralized as it can get. Someone has to sign, so it’s better to have a few people signing off on transactions. However, you can’t have everyone signing either, as nothing will ever get done.

Setting up the wallet is the easy part — the challenge comes in when considering how to best coordinate signers without reverting to a system where the rich have bought their way to power and now hold the keys. Have an annual revolving roundtable, where three to five DAO members take on a signatory role for a certain period. DAOs could even nominate new people every year so that it’s not the same contributors every time.

Too many hands in the pot

Of course, with more people involved, there is a greater risk of coordination becoming a challenge. You need more people to sign off, and everyone can see everything. Some DAOs will prefer convenience and accept the risks that come with it. Others aren’t willing to compromise and would willingly jump through the extra hoops to secure their funds. We’re even seeing DAOs use a “pod” or subDAO architecture in which they create multiple multisignature wallets for smaller teams so that they can operate more flexibly and speed up the process. At the end of the day, it’s a question of what will make DAOs a more viable option: agile, centralized wallet management or increased security for their funds? Time will tell.

Tahem Verma is the co-founder and CEO of Mesha, an all-in-one smart management tool for Web3 startups and DAOs. He previously founded the English-learning app Enguru. He received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Cornell Tech.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.