ENS Labs has revised a governance proposal that would have shifted broader control of its treasury to the ENS Foundation, after delegates raised concerns that the original plan eroded the DAO's decentralized structure.
Under the updated version, the DAO retains custody of its primary operational wallet, which holds ETH and stablecoins used for day-to-day spending. Only a separate $65 million Endowment Safe is set to transition to the Foundation, and even that transfer comes with guardrails: a timelock delay and cancellation rights held by the project's Security Council.
What changed from the original plan
The initial proposal would have handed the Foundation wider authority over treasury assets, a structure that drew objections from delegates who argued it concentrated too much control outside the DAO's direct governance process. Governance discussion on Discuss.ens.domains framed the revision as a compromise: the Foundation gets to professionally manage the long-term endowment, while the DAO keeps its hands on the funds used for ongoing operations.
As one summary of the plan put it, “the DAO retains custody, while only the $65 million Endowment Safe is set to transition to the Foundation, subject to a timelock and Security Council cancellation rights.”
Token holdings stay with the community
The DAO continues to hold 54.6 million ENS tokens among tokenholders under the revised structure. Separately, the Foundation is set to receive a grant of 1 million ENS tokens, which will vest over multiple years rather than being distributed immediately — a structure meant to align the Foundation's incentives with the protocol's long-term health rather than short-term liquidity needs.
Why the pushback mattered
The episode is a reminder that treasury proposals at large DAOs increasingly face real scrutiny from delegates rather than rubber-stamp approval, particularly when a plan touches custody of DAO-controlled assets. By narrowing the scope of what moves to the Foundation and attaching timelock and cancellation safeguards to the endowment transfer, ENS Labs appears to have found a version of the proposal that keeps operational control decentralized while still allowing dedicated management of its long-term reserves.
