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Ethereum Name Service tokenholders have approved and executed the "Next Era of ENS DAO" governance proposal, handing administrative control of an approximately $65 million ENS Endowment to a newly operationalized ENS Foundation. The onchain vote on Aug. 11 passed with roughly 70% support and gives the protocol its first full-time executive director, dedicated staff and a five-member board.
The Foundation now handles off-chain policy, brand protection and operational work, while ENS Labs keeps focus on core protocol development, including the upcoming ENSv2 upgrade. Inaugural directors include Executive Director Alexander Urbelis, ENS founder Nick Johnson, and independents Kartik Talwar, Brett Sun and Anthony Leutenegger. The DAO also transfers 1 million ENS tokens to fund compensation, while the DAO itself retains control of roughly 54.6% of total ENS supply and keeps the right to appoint or remove Foundation directors.
Why it matters
The move closes a turbulent governance chapter for ENS. In June, ENS Labs CEO Nick Johnson self-delegated about 3.26 million ENS tokens, roughly half of active voting power, to block renewal of the existing Security Council and pushed for shifting treasury and operational control toward an expanded Foundation. Critics including Security Council member Brantly Millegan and delegate Lefteris Karapetsas called it a governance attack. A new Security Council has since been seated.
The new structure attempts to answer that critique with explicit off-chain and on-chain separation: the Foundation executes, the DAO retains oversight, and a nine-day timelock on endowment transactions, which the Security Council can cancel, sits between any spending and execution.
Market impact
The read is institutionalization, not monetization. The Endowment is funded from .eth registration fees, so its size scales with adoption of the naming protocol rather than treasury deployment. The Foundation publishes board-ratified budgets, annual audited financials and quarterly grant updates, and independent directors serve two-year renewable terms.
Frequently asked questions
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What did the ENS tokenholder vote approve?
The "Next Era of ENS DAO" proposal passed on Aug. 11 with roughly 70% support, handing administrative control of an approximately $65 million ENS Endowment to a newly operationalized ENS Foundation with a full-time executive director, staff and a five-member board.
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Who runs the new ENS Foundation?
The inaugural board features Executive Director Alexander Urbelis, ENS founder Nick Johnson, and independent directors Kartik Talwar, Brett Sun and Anthony Leutenegger, with independents serving two-year renewable terms.
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How are the Foundation and ENS Labs separated?
The Foundation handles off-chain policy, brand protection and operational work, while ENS Labs keeps focus on core protocol development, including the upcoming ENSv2 upgrade.
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What safeguards sit on the $65M Endowment?
Endowment transactions run through a nine-day timelock that the Security Council can cancel, and the Foundation spends only against board-ratified budgets with annual audited financials and quarterly grant updates.
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How is the recent ENS governance dispute resolved?
A new Security Council has been seated after June's controversy over Nick Johnson self-delegating about 3.26 million ENS tokens to block renewal of the prior council, and the new structure separates Foundation execution from DAO oversight.
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