ENS Labs Shelves Plan to Transfer DAO Treasury Control
ENS Labs has revised its plan to move DAO treasury control after weeks of delegate opposition. The original proposal, introduced on June 19 by COO Katherine Wu, would have shifted both the operational wallet and ENS token holdings to a new entity called the ENS Foundation.
The revised draft establishes an ENS Foundation but drops the most contentious element: transferring the DAO's operational wallet to the new entity. This move comes after concerns were raised about treasury capture by ENS Labs insiders, including Co-founder Nick Johnson's self-delegation practices.
The revised plan keeps operational wallet control at the DAO level and allows the Foundation to exist, managing grants and handling long-term capital planning. The ENS tokenholders retain governance authority over protocol-level decisions, including smart contract upgrades and constitutional changes.
ENS Labs generates revenue from .eth domain registrations and has a treasury valued between $350 million and $400 million, including substantial ENS token holdings alongside an endowment managed by Karpatkey, a crypto-native treasury management firm.