$DOT Holders Gain Control Over Network Funding with Polkadot's OpenGov Treasury

Polkadot's OpenGov treasury system has been in effect since March 2026, allowing any $DOT holder to propose funding requests and vote on them directly. This decentralized approach replaced a smaller council-based model that was introduced earlier in June 2023.

The Dynamic Allocation Pool (DAP) is the main source of funding for the treasury, which collects transaction fees, coretime sales revenue, and newly issued $DOT tokens instead of burning them system-wide as it did previously. Governance then directs spending from the pool across validator and staking rewards, treasury spending, and a strategic reserve.

The OpenGov system allows voters to delegate their voting power by track, meaning they can send their power to one technically minded delegate for protocol upgrade decisions while delegating that same power to another, treasury-focused delegate for spending proposals. This approach enables the system to handle both small tips and multi-million-dollar allocations without requiring every decision to go through a single vote.

The treasury's first net profit under OpenGov was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025, with $7.4 million spent that quarter and a net profit of 1.6 million $DOT after accounting for inflation and issuance. This shows the model can operate with more spending discipline than it did in its early years.