Aragon Association Unwinds, Plans to Distribute $155 Million to ANT Holders

The entity behind the Aragon DAO plans to dissolve and return $155 million worth of ANT tokens to holders.

The Aragon Association (AA), the entity behind the crypto project that provides decentralized tooling for DAO’s Aragon, will be fully liquidated and dissolved.

In a blog post on Nov. 2, the AA said it had passed a resolution to deploy most of the treasury to allow ANT holders to redeem their tokens for ETH at a fixed rate. The entity plans to deploy 86,343 ETH, worth a little over $155 million at current prices, to the redemption contract.

We have an important update for all stakeholders of the @AragonProject. We passed a resolution to:

– Deploy most of the treasury to allow all ANT holders to redeem their ANT for ETH
– Dissolve the AA
– Continue the mission in a product-focused structurehttps://t.co/S0GjRtzhZJ

— Aragon Association (@AragonAssoc) November 2, 2023

fter all the redemptions have been made, AA will burn the ANT held in the contract and dissolve, after which the native token will no longer have any utility. 

Aragon was one of the earliest crypto projects that was involved in building decentralized front-end tooling for DAOs. The araganOS DAO framework powers several DAOs on Ethereum, including Lido and Curve. 

“We succeeded at many things, and failed at others,” said the team in a blog post. 

Earlier this year, Aragon became the subject of controversy after it cancelled plans for ANT holders to gain the majority voting power, which would have given its community control over the project’s treasury.

On May 9, AA said it was repurposing its DAO into a grants program instead, in what they claimed was a response to a “coordinated attack” from the Risk Free Value (RFV) Raiders report. 

Last week, a coordinated 51% attack was launched on the Aragon DAO.

Arca Capital Management, a U.S. based asset management firm, is leading the effort. Evidence suggests that Arca’s involvement is aimed at extracting value from Aragon for financial profit.

— Aragon 🦅 (@AragonProject) May 9, 2023

In Thursday’s blog, the AA described their actions as “a rushed attempt to vest control of the treasury directly in the hands of ANT holders.”

“Neither the AA nor ANT are currently suited to govern the project. A fresh start is needed and nothing short of a total reset will do,” they said.