---
type: source
title: "P2P.me Introduces MetaDAO Governance Proposal for $500K USDC Token Buyback — Post-Insider Trading Scandal Governance Response"
author: "Various MetaDAO ecosystem sources / Rio synthesis"
url: https://www.metadao.fi/projects/p2p-protocol/fundraise
date: 2026-04-05
domain: internet-finance
secondary_domains: []
format: analysis
status: unprocessed
priority: medium
tags: [MetaDAO, P2P.me, futarchy, governance, buyback, insider-trading, mechanism-design]
intake_tier: research-task
---

## Content

**Timeline context:**
- March 28-31, 2026: P2P.me team revealed they had bet $20,500 on Polymarket on their own MetaDAO ICO outcome after securing $3M Multicoin oral commitment (MNPI)
- ICO extended; profits (~$14,700) routed to MetaDAO Treasury; $5.2M ICO completed
- April 5, 2026: P2P.me introduced MetaDAO governance proposal for buyback of up to $500,000 USDC worth of P2P tokens at 8% below ICO prices
- No formal disclosure/recusal policy from MetaDAO governance as of May 2, 2026 (Session 34 dead end)

**The buyback proposal details:**
- Mechanism: MetaDAO futarchy governance proposal
- Amount: Up to $500,000 USDC
- Price: 8% below ICO price
- Purpose: Stated as a capital return to P2P token holders who felt they received less value due to the ICO controversy
- Significance: P2P.me is using MetaDAO's own governance mechanism to address the fallout from the ICO controversy — "taking medicine with the same mechanism that caused the injury"

**What this resolves vs. what it doesn't:**
- RESOLVES: P2P token holders get a liquidity mechanism at below-ICO prices
- DOES NOT RESOLVE: No formal MetaDAO platform-level disclosure or recusal policy for ICO teams trading on correlated external markets
- DOES NOT RESOLVE: The mechanism gap (futarchy manipulation resistance is scoped to internal conditional markets, not cross-platform MNPI positions)
- DOES NOT RESOLVE: Whether future ICO teams can repeat the same behavior with impunity

**Evaluation through futarchy governance:**
The buyback proposal itself goes through MetaDAO's prediction market governance — if the market believes the $500K buyback increases P2P's token value more than it costs, the proposal passes. This is the mechanism operating as designed: using futarchy to evaluate a treasury-allocation decision.

**Larger significance:** MetaDAO has now handled two significant failure modes through informal mechanisms rather than formal policy:
1. FairScale (Session 18): Treasury liquidation after revenue misrepresentation — addressed by governance market passing a liquidation proposal
2. P2P.me (Sessions 31-35): MNPI-contaminated external bet — addressed by ICO extension, profit routing to treasury, and buyback proposal
Neither resulted in a formal platform policy change.

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** The P2P.me post-scandal governance response illuminates the gap between MetaDAO's internal manipulation resistance (strong) and its cross-platform governance failures (unaddressed). The buyback proposal is MetaDAO's mechanism operating as designed in response to a governance failure — but the underlying failure mode (cross-platform MNPI contamination) remains unaddressed at the policy level.

**What surprised me:** That P2P.me is using MetaDAO's own futarchy governance to address the fallout from an ICO conducted on MetaDAO. There's a self-referential quality — the same mechanism that enabled the controversy (MetaDAO ICO) is being used to resolve it. This is actually a strength of the system: the governance market evaluates whether the buyback is value-accretive. If it passes, the market has judged that the buyback creates more value than it costs.

**What I expected but didn't find:** A formal MetaDAO platform-level policy on ICO team disclosure requirements. Nothing. After two significant MNPI-adjacent incidents (FairScale revenue misrepresentation + P2P.me external betting), MetaDAO has not implemented a formal disclosure policy.

**KB connections:**
- [[futarchy is manipulation-resistant because attack attempts create profitable opportunities for arbitrageurs]] — P2P.me confirms that futarchy's manipulation resistance is scoped to the internal conditional market, not cross-platform positions with non-public information
- [[MetaDAO empirical results show smaller participants gaining influence through futarchy]] — the buyback being handled through governance (not team discretion) is a positive sign that futarchy governs real decisions at MetaDAO

**Extraction hints:**
1. "P2P.me cross-platform MNPI contamination reveals that futarchy's manipulation resistance is scoped to internal conditional markets and does not prevent insiders from trading correlated external positions with non-public information" — KB claim candidate, confidence: likely (P2P.me provides direct evidence; FairScale provides supporting evidence)

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[futarchy is manipulation-resistant because attack attempts create profitable opportunities for arbitrageurs]] — P2P.me buyback confirms that the manipulation resistance claim needs scoping qualification
WHY ARCHIVED: Completes the P2P.me narrative arc; documents the governance response; confirms no formal policy change; evidence for cross-platform MNPI gap claim
EXTRACTION HINT: The extractor should pair this with the P2P.me ICO controversy source (already in queue) to build the cross-platform MNPI contamination claim. The scoping qualification is: futarchy's manipulation resistance holds for internal conditional market manipulation but not for cross-platform positions leveraging ICO-context MNPI.
