Deep Dive: Solana DAOs & Governance - August 2024

Note: Below is the text-accessible version of this post for visually impaired readers.

Part I: SPL Governance

SPL Governance DAOs have tapered in 2024. SPL Governance allows teams to create DAOs with their own instance instead of using the default Realms program. Despite more activity on Solana this year, the monthly average active SPL Governance instances dropped from 5 to 3. Similarly, the number of DAOs created through SPL Governance instances has fallen to single digits in recent months.

Pyth and Parcl DAOs showed signs of life for SPL Governance instances. The two DAOs attracted 995 and 542 voters, respectively, with most voters supporting the proposals passed in each DAO.

Over 2,000 voters participated in council elections to shape Pyth operations. In August, four individuals were elected to the Pythian Council. The Pythian Council is crucial for approving updates or changes to the Oracle program and for setting data request fees for Pyth.

Notable Developments:

Metaplex: NFT and Token Standard -

• Passed one proposal for creating a grants process led by Deanslist DAO.
• 5M $MPLX was also purchased in August for the DAO as a buyback from fees.

Helium: Decentralized Wireless Infrastructure -

• MOBILE DAO passed three proposals to improve the network and elect members to their working group.
• HNT DAO passed one proposal for creating a new subnetwork, ENERGY.

Helium proposals surged in August after a slow couple of months. The number of proposals increased substantially in August, with MOBILE subDAO submitting three and HNT submitting one.

Helium DAOs have excelled in internal governance. Helium attracted about 1.9k cumulative voters across five proposals in August, one of the most engaged communities we've studied.

Sell pressure on HNT has led to a mass withdrawal amongst HNT DAO voters. Voting on Helium DAOs involves locking up tokens for a specified period. There has been a large net outflow of tokens in 2024 for the HNT DAO only. The large HNT outflow is attributable to sell pressure in the market: 2/3 of withdrawing voters elected to sell their tokens on a DEX.

DAOs To Be Launched:

Magic Eden: NFT Marketplace - The $ME token will soon be launched as an ecosystem token for the Magic Eden community.

Kamino Finance: Borrow & Lend DeFi Protocol - The $KMNO governance token went live in April and will be used for protocol decision-making.

Zeta Markets: DeFi Perps Trading - Zeta introduced its governance token, $ZEX, last June.

Part II: Realms

DAO formation on Realms resumed its uptrend after a slow July. DAO formation on Realms increased by 84% in August, bringing the total number of DAOs created through realms to 1,131.

As expected, recently formed DAOs are the most active cohort. In the past three months, at least 25% of newly formed DAOs have remained active. However, less than 10% of DAOs launched in the last two years remain active today, suggesting a significant number of unused DAOs.

Realms is seeing more proposals per creator. Proposal creation has increased despite a decline in the number of proposal makers; more creators drafted multiple proposals than in July.

Most Realms DAOs are actively submitting proposals. Over 70% of active DAOs in August had more than one proposal.

After a July surge in voters from a BONK proposal, August governance participation on Realms returned to normal levels.

Part III: MetaDAO

MetaDAO has not been used to create new DAOs for the past two months. MetaDAO is still in beta and began welcoming early adopters only six months ago.

MetaDAO hit an ATH in new proposals created. New and active voters also increased in August, showing signs of strong governance engagement.