Investors in ApeDAO, which owns a catalogue of NFTs, including 81 highly prized Bored Apes, are voting on whether or not to liquidate its digital assets, now worth over $30 million.
Some background: KyloRen, NFT collector, started the DAO in June 2021 with his collection of Bored Apes, a Crypto Punk, and other blue-chip NFTs. They offered fractional ownership of the NFT collection by dividing several prolific NFTs into $APED tokens that went for $11.05 and sold out in four days.
- Those tokens represent voting rights within the DAO and a fraction of ownership of the treasury.
Why it’s happening: Investors are unhappy that $APED has been trading at what they view as a discount in relation to the DAO’s holdings. Some DAO participants now think it makes sense to cash out the assets owned by the DAO rather than hope the value of the token rises.
- “Given the current gap between $APED price and net asset value of DAO holdings, liquidating the DAO would generate substantial returns for $APED Holders,” the proposal states.
- There are around 1.8 million $APED in circulation trading at $8 per token. That means the total supply of $APED is worth far less than the value of the DAO’s digital assets. Given the value of the NFTs owned by the DAO, proponents of liquidation say $APED ought to be priced somewhere between $16 and $21.
- Currently, over 80% of voters seem to be in favour of liquidating.
But wait: The DAO’s assets are held in a multi-sig wallet with four signers. Two of the four signers are needed to move any assets, meaning that a couple people could still potentially block the liquidation even if the proposal passes.
- This cuts against DAO-ist principles of decentralization because four people have more power than the rest.
What’s next: The vote ends on February 2, and so far, one of the four signers has voted in favour of liquidating.
