Fluid Proposes Establishing a Foundation Funded by $3M Annual Grant From DAO

Fluid DAO is considering a proposal to transfer all of the DeFi platform’s intellectual property into a Cayman Islands foundation, and to approve a $250,000 monthly grant to fund development and operations.

The proposal was submitted on Monday, Feb. 23, by DMH, the COO of Instadapp, the firm behind Fluid. It calls for the creation of the Fluid Foundation governed by DAO votes, a familiar corporate setup for crypto organizations.

Under the plan, “all Fluid Protocol smart contract code,” front-end interfaces, domains, trademarks and related assets would be transferred to the foundation. Once completed, the assets would “belong to the Foundation — not to any individual, company, or labs entity,” DMH wrote.

The foundation would have no owners and would operate through custodians and directors, according to the proposal. Its sole purpose would be to hold and steward the protocol’s intellectual property on behalf of the DAO.

“The Fluid team acts as custodians of the Foundation — not owners,” the proposal states, with $FLUID token holders retaining “ultimate authority” through governance.

Control Stays with DAO

The proposal argues that a legal entity is needed as the protocol, which now has over $1 billion in total value locked (TVL), expands and engages with off-chain counterparties. A foundation structure would allow Fluid to meet “AML, KYC, banking, and regulatory requirements” without altering how token-based governance functions, the proposal argues.

Token holders would also retain the power to change foundation policy or shut it down entirely. The proposal says holders could “in an extreme case, dissolve the Foundation entirely through a governance vote.” DMH further elaborated in a response to a comment on the proposal:

“It is very important to understand that in the legal field, token holders and DAO have no rights; this is why we are creating a legal wrapper that can now have ownership rights over the protocol, and this foundation has no ownership.”

To fund the structure, the DAO is being asked to approve a $250,000 monthly grant, or about $3 million a year from its treasury, which is funded by protocol revenue. The budget would cover engineering, infrastructure, security, business development and general operational costs, according to DMH.

‘Foundation Bears the Legal Costs’

Fluid operates a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol, as well as a swap interface. According to data from DefiLlama, that combination has brought Fluid roughly $1.2 billion in TVL and generated about $1.1 million in revenue in January. In August, the platform saw a record high revenue of $1.52 million. Taking Fluid’s best revenue month yet, the grant would consume around 16% of that monthly revenue.

Fluid’s TVL and revenue. Source: DefiLlama

If approved, legal work to transfer the IP is expected to be completed by mid-2026, with Cayman Islands counsel handling the process. The team also plans to move ownership of all EVM deployments under direct DAO governance.

Some raised concerns about liability if the foundation were sued. In response, DMH said that “if the foundation gets sued, the foundation itself bears the legal costs and any liability.”

Over the past 24 hours, $FLUID slid 6% from around $2 to $1.88, but has since recovered to $1.96.

The Defiant reached out to Instadapp for comments on the proposal, but hasn’t heard back by press time.

Late last year, a fee-related dispute between the two main entities behind Aave — Aave Labs and Aave DAO — turned into a broader debate on how crypto organizations should be structured.

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