Author: StakeDAO Association
Preamble
This proposal serves as a formal request for a half-yearly grant (“Grant Proposal”) from Stake DAO for the period of H2-2025 (July 1st to December 31st, 2025) in continuation and recognition of the governance proposal (SDGP#32) and the previous Grant proposals (SDGP#39 and SDGP#48) previously adopted by Stake DAO.
The StakeDAO Association (“Association”), established as a pivotal entity within the Stake DAO ecosystem and based in Zug, Switzerland, aims to further support the development and growth of Stake DAO through specified services aligned with the Stake DAO’s strategic objectives.
Review of Previous Grant (H1-2025)
For H1-25, StakeDAO Association was awarded a USDC 750,000 grant for the purpose of achieving certain milestones. Here is a recap of the outcome for those milestones:
- M1 (March 2025): Roll out of “Staking v2” (budget: $110,000) => Still in progress
- M2 (April 2025): Roll out of curator infrastructure (budget: $30,000) => Still in progress
- M3 (June 2025): Roll out of new tokenomics (budget: $75,000) => unsuccessful, development of that task didn’t start yet, work started on the specifications
- M4 (February 2025): Roll out Zerolend locker (budget: $20,000) => Successful
- M5 (February 2025): Roll out new Spectra locker (budget: $20,000) => Successful
- M6 (June 2025): Roll out additional lockers and strategies (budget: $115,000) => Successful: YieldNest, development of an infrastructure for Merkl integration
- M7 (May 2025): Roll out VMv2 for new markets (budget: $20,000) => Successful: veBAL and veFXN VMv2 markets were deployed
- M8 (June 2025): Maintain high uptime >95% (budget: $250,000) => Successful
- M9 (June 2025): Business development targeting $150m in strategies (budget: $160,000) => reached only c.$120m in strategies, which still represented a 2.4x growth over the period.
Overall, the work performed during H1-2025 was very focused on the development of the new staking infrastructure which is yet to be fully rolled out. However, the whitepaper has been published, the contracts have undergone two audits, and the infrastructure is live on several side chains and being tested.
Furthermore, in terms of business development, Stake DAO strategies experienced solid traction over the first half of the year, and started seeing broader adoption. The number of strategies over $100k TVL increased to up to 100, showing the vast diversity of users that Stake DAO was able to reach.
The fee and rewards generation for veSDT and for the DAO was very solid, with $238k distributed to veSDT holders (+830% v/s $26k in H1 2024), and a total output for fees and liquidity mining from the DAO treasury exceeding $1.5m (+58% v/s $955k in H1 2024). Costs stayed under control despite the number of audits that were performed, reaching $1m (+6% v/s $978k in H1 2024).
H2-25 Grant request
For H2-25, the proposed focus will be on deploying the Staking v2 architecture and developing the distribution channels that will enable its broad adoption. For this, it will be necessary to build a product which is as safe and easy to use as possible, so that it can be attractive to both retail users and institutions or distributors.
Amount Granted: The Association hereby requests a grant amount of USDC $840,000 (“Grant Amount”) designated for the execution of the milestones further described below (“Grant Purpose”).
This slightly higher grant amount requested is derived from the fact that the H1 budget took into account the $258k of unspent grant of 2023, that were rolled over to 2024. There were also several exceptional costs in H1-25, and much less exceptional costs expected for H2-25. The current run-rate costs incurred by the Association is more or less $125k per month, as they suffered from the growing EUR/USD ratio and the hiring of a new senior smart contract developer. For H2, a 12% monthly margin applied to those costs seems reasonable, leading to a monthly payment of $140k to the StakeDAO Association.
Milestones
The Grant Amount shall be paid to the Association in ten (10) instalments to perform the following milestones (“Milestones”):
M1 (August 2025): Roll out of Staking v2 (required budget: $110,000)
M2 (August 2025): Roll out of RESOLV locker (required budget: $20,000)
M3 (August 2025): Roll out of vePENDLE Votemarket (required budget: $40,000)
M4 (September 2025): Roll out of curator infrastructure (required budget: $40,000)
M5 (December 2025): Roll out of new tokenomics (required budget: $155,000)
M6 (August 2025): Roll out of asdPENDLE Pendle market (required budget: $15,000)
M7 (December 2025): Roll out additional lockers and strategies (required budget: $30,000)
M8 (December 2025): Roll out of Stake DAO lending markets ($50,000)
M9 (December 2025): Maintain a high level of uptime of Stake DAO’s product and user interface (>95%), including community management and legal watch (required budget: $230,000)
M10 (December 2025): Ensure steady business development efforts with an objective of $150-200m TVL in Stake DAO strategies, and $300m in total TVL. (required budget: $150,000)
The Grant Amount shall be distributed in six (6) monthly payments to the Association per mutually agreeable arrangements. The initial payment schedule suggests a USDC 140,000 monthly payment, performed within seven (7) days after the end of each month.
Association Autonomy
The Grant Proposal does not create a principal or agent, employer or employee partnership, or joint venture between the Association and the Stake DAO.
The Association is free to decide upon the way to carry out the execution or fulfillment of the Milestones set forth above. The Association retains its independence in achieving these Milestones, leveraging either internal capabilities and resources or engaging suitable third parties as auxiliary persons.
Purpose and Limitation of Use
As described in the Milestones, the Grant Amount shall fund research and development (R&D) initiatives aimed at enhancing Stake DAO’s decentralized finance (DeFi) products and services, encompassing new product development, user experience enhancements, security auditing, and risk management, as well as the operation and maintenance of the existing product when needed.
The Association understands and acknowledges that the Grant Amount shall be exclusively used to execute the Milestones defined within the Grant Proposal.
Internal regulations shall be in place to address any misuse of the funds, ensuring that all activities funded by the Grant Amount shall directly contribute to the specified project and the broader Stake DAO ecosystem.
IP Ownership and Source Code Publication and Licensing
The Association shall become the sole owner of any intellectual property rights in and to any kind of work products that have been or will be created in the context of this grant.
The Association acknowledges its role in holding and managing intellectual property rights within the Stake DAO ecosystem.
All backend and frontend code developed as part of this grant, including smart contracts and web interfaces, will be published on a designated public GitHub repository. The software will be licensed under an open-source license (such as the BSD License, the MIT License, the Apache License Version 2.0, or any other license approved by Stake DAO), promoting transparency and accessibility.
Reporting Obligation
In line with the commitment to transparency and accountability, the Association will include details regarding the Grant Amount and its utilization in its monthly activity reports. This report will be prepared in accordance with the governance proposal’s requirements, ensuring the Stake DAO community is fully informed of the progress and outcomes of the funded initiatives.
Conclusion
This proposal, structured in accordance with both the strategic goals of Stake DAO and the legal guidelines provided, represents a comprehensive plan for utilizing the requested grant to achieve significant advancements within the Stake DAO ecosystem. The Association commits to fulfilling the outlined objectives with the highest standards of transparency, efficiency, and accountability.
Proposal Specifications:
- Admin: veSDT holders
- Community feedback: 3 days minimum
- Voting Duration: 7 days