teleo-codex/entities/internet-finance/metadao.md
m3taversal eaf5cce137 rio: rewrite metadao entity, fix futardio description, consolidate duplicates
- What: Rewrote metadao.md from scratch — added ownership coin launch table
  (8 curated ICOs), deduplicated timeline (~150 duplicate lines collapsed),
  expanded key decisions table to 27 entries with links, fixed futardio
  description (permissionless tier, not a replacement for curated ICOs)
- What: Consolidated futard-io.md (thin duplicate) into redirect to futardio.md
- What: Cleaned futardio.md timeline (removed 3x duplicate memecoin launchpad
  entries, deduplicated individual launch entries already in launch table)
- Why: Entity was feeding bad data to Telegram bot — wrong futardio description
  caused platform confusion in user-facing responses. Timeline noise made the
  entity unusable as a reference.

Pentagon-Agent: Rio <244ba05f-3aa3-4079-8c59-6d68a77c76fe>
2026-04-01 15:58:57 +01:00

175 lines
12 KiB
Markdown

---
type: entity
entity_type: company
name: "MetaDAO"
domain: internet-finance
handles: ["@MetaDAOProject"]
website: https://metadao.fi
status: active
tracked_by: rio
created: 2026-03-11
last_updated: 2026-04-01
founded: 2023-01-01
founders: ["[[proph3t]]"]
category: "Futarchy governance protocol + ownership coin launchpad (Solana)"
stage: growth
key_metrics:
meta_price: "~$3.78 (March 2026)"
market_cap: "~$85.7M"
ecosystem_market_cap: "$219M total ($69M non-META)"
total_revenue: "$3.1M+ (Q4 2025: $2.51M — 54% Futarchy AMM, 46% Meteora LP)"
total_equity: "$16.5M (up from $4M in Q3 2025)"
runway: "15+ quarters at ~$783K/quarter burn"
curated_icos: "8 on MetaDAO proper, raising $25.6M total"
permissionless_launches: "65+ via Futardio"
futarchic_amm_lp_share: "~20% of each project's token supply"
proposal_volume: "$3.6M Q4 2025 (up from $205K in Q3)"
competitors: ["[[snapshot]]", "[[tally]]"]
built_on: ["Solana"]
tags: ["futarchy", "decision-markets", "ownership-coins", "governance", "launchpad"]
---
# MetaDAO
## Overview
The futarchy governance protocol on Solana. Implements decision markets through Autocrat — a system where proposals create parallel pass/fail token universes settled by time-weighted average price over a three-day window. Also operates as a launchpad for ownership coins through curated ICOs. The first platform for futarchy-governed organizations at scale.
## Core Products
**Autocrat**: Conditional token markets for governance decisions. Proposals create pass/fail universes; TWAP settlement over 3 days. ~$3.8M cumulative trading volume across 65+ governance proposals ($58K average per proposal).
**Curated ICOs (Ownership Coin Launches)**: MetaDAO selects and launches projects through its ICO mechanism. Projects raise capital, receive futarchy governance, and become ownership coins in the MetaDAO ecosystem. The original mechanism used uncapped pro-rata commitments, causing massive overbidding (Umbra: $155M committed for $750K raise; Solomon: $103M committed for $2M raise). Mechanism updated to unruggable ICO format in February 2026.
**Futardio** ([[futardio]]): MetaDAO's permissionless launch infrastructure for smaller raises ($50K-$500K). Anyone can launch. Separate tier from the curated ICOs — not a replacement, but complementary infrastructure for projects that don't go through MetaDAO's curation process. See the [[futardio]] entity for the full permissionless launch table.
**Futarchic AMM**: Custom-built AMM for decision market trading. No fees for external LPs — all fees go to the protocol. ~20% of each project's token supply is in the Futarchic AMM LP. LP cannot be withdrawn during active markets. Processed $300M volume and generated $1.5M in fees.
## Ownership Coin Launches (Curated ICOs)
These are the projects that launched through MetaDAO's curated ICO process and became ownership coins in the ecosystem:
| Date | Project | Raise Target | Capital Committed | Oversubscription | Status | Entity |
|------|---------|-------------|-------------------|------------------|--------|--------|
| 2025-10-06 | Umbra | $750K | $154.9M | 207x | Active | [[umbra]] |
| 2025-10-14 | Avici | $2M | $34.2M | 17x | Active | [[avici]] |
| 2025-10-18 | Loyal | $500K | $75.9M | 152x | Active | [[loyal]] |
| 2025-10-20 | ZKLSOL | $300K | $14.9M | 50x | Active | [[zklsol]] |
| 2025-10-23 | Paystream | $550K | $6.1M | 11x | Active | [[paystream]] |
| 2025-11-14 | Solomon | $2M | $102.9M | 51x | Active | [[solomon]] |
| 2026-01-06 | Ranger | $6M | $86.4M | 14x | Liquidated | [[ranger-finance]] |
| 2026-03-26 | P2P.me | $6M | ~$6.6M | ~1.1x | Complete | [[p2p-me]] |
**Key patterns:**
- Early ICOs had extreme oversubscription (Umbra 207x, Loyal 152x, Solomon 51x) — more capital wanted in than slots available
- Ranger was the first liquidation — $5.04M USDC returned to holders after material misrepresentation. The enforcement mechanism worked as designed.
- P2P.me was the most recent curated ICO (March 2026), much lower oversubscription than early launches
- Hurupay attempted a $3M raise in February 2026 but failed to reach minimum — first ICO failure, all capital refunded
## Current State
- **Financial**: $85.7M market cap, $219M ecosystem market cap ($69M non-META). Total revenue $3.1M+ (Q4 2025 alone: $2.51M). Total equity $16.5M, 15+ quarters runway.
- **Ecosystem**: 8 curated ICOs raising $25.6M total + 65+ permissionless Futardio launches
- **Treasury**: Active management via subcommittee proposals. Omnibus proposal migrated ~90% of META liquidity into Futarchy AMM and burned ~60K META.
- **Known limitation**: Limited trading volume in uncontested decisions — when community consensus is obvious, conditional markets add little information.
## Timeline
### Protocol History
- **2023** — MetaDAO founded by Proph3t
- **2023-11** — Proposal 1 (LST Vote Market) passed — first product-building initiative
- **2023-12** — Autocrat v0.1 deployed
- **2024-01** — AMM program approved to replace CLOB markets
- **2024-03** — Burn 99.3% META supply; develop FaaS; migrate to Autocrat v0.2
- **2024-03** — Appointed Proph3t and Nallok as BDF3M (Benevolent Dictators for 3 Months) to address execution bottlenecks — 1015 META + 100K USDC for 7 months
- **2024-05** — Convex founder compensation approved (2% per $1B market cap, max 10%, 4-year cliff)
- **2024-06** — $1.5M fundraise approved; BDF3M term expired (FaaS launched, bottleneck resolved)
- **2024-08** — Futardio memecoin launchpad proposal rejected (reputational risk)
- **2024-08** — Services agreement with Organization Technology LLC ($1.378M annualized burn)
- **2024-10** — Hired Advaith Sekharan as founding engineer ($180K/year + 1% tokens)
- **2025-01** — Rejected Theia's $700K OTC at discount; approved Theia's $500K OTC at 14% premium
- **2025-02** — Hired Robin Hanson as advisor (0.1% supply, 2-year vest); approved launchpad release
- **2025-08** — META token migration
### Ownership Coin Launch Era
- **2025-10** — Futardio launches. Umbra first ICO (~$155M committed). Avici, Loyal, ZKLSOL, Paystream follow.
- **2025-11** — Solomon ICO ($103M committed for $2M raise)
- **2025-Q4** — First operating profitability: $2.51M fee revenue. Ecosystem grew from 2 to 8 protocols. Total equity $4M → $16.5M.
- **2026-01** — Ranger ICO ($6M raise, $86M committed). Token peaked at TGE, fell 74-90%.
- **2026-02** — Hurupay ICO fails (first failure — $2M of $3M minimum, all refunded). VC discount OTC rejected by futarchy, triggering 16% META price surge. Mechanism updated to unruggable ICO.
- **2026-02/03** — Futardio permissionless launch explosion (dozens of small launches)
- **2026-03** — Ranger liquidation passed (97% support, ~$5M returned). Trove Markets collapse ($11.4M raised, crashed 95-98%).
- **2026-03** — Hanson GMU futarchy research proposal ($80K, 6-month study, 500 participants) — active at ~50% likelihood
- **2026-03** — Omnibus migration proposal (Autocrat upgrade + Squads v4.0 multisig + legal docs) — passed at 84% probability
- **2026-03** — P2P.me ICO launched ($6M target, backed by Multicoin + Coinbase Ventures)
## Key Decisions
| # | Date | Proposal | Category | Outcome |
|---|------|----------|----------|---------|
| 1 | 2023-11 | [[metadao-develop-lst-vote-market]] | Product | Passed |
| — | 2023-12 | [[metadao-migrate-autocrat-v01]] | Mechanism | Passed |
| — | 2024-01 | [[metadao-develop-amm-program-for-futarchy]] | Mechanism | Passed |
| — | 2024-02 | [[metadao-otc-trade-pantera-capital]] | Treasury | Failed |
| — | 2024-03 | [[metadao-burn-993-percent-meta]] | Treasury | Passed |
| — | 2024-03 | [[metadao-develop-faas]] | Strategy | Passed |
| — | 2024-03 | [[metadao-migrate-autocrat-v02]] | Mechanism | Passed |
| — | 2024-03 | [[metadao-otc-trade-colosseum]] | Treasury | Passed |
| — | 2024-03 | [[metadao-appoint-nallok-proph3t-benevolent-dictators]] | Governance | Passed |
| 16 | 2024-05 | [[metadao-compensation-proph3t-nallok]] | Hiring | Passed |
| 19 | 2024-06 | [[metadao-fundraise-2]] | Fundraise | Passed |
| 20 | 2024-08 | [[metadao-approve-q3-roadmap]] | Strategy | Passed |
| 21 | 2024-08 | [[metadao-create-futardio]] | Strategy | Failed |
| 22 | 2024-08 | [[metadao-services-agreement-organization-technology]] | Operations | Passed |
| 23 | 2024-10 | [[metadao-hire-advaith-sekharan]] | Hiring | Passed |
| 24 | 2024-10 | [[metadao-swap-150k-into-isc]] | Treasury | Failed |
| 25 | 2025-01 | [[metadao-otc-trade-theia-1]] | Treasury | Failed |
| 26 | 2025-01 | [[metadao-otc-trade-theia-2]] | Treasury | Passed |
| 27 | 2025-01 | [[metadao-token-split-elastic-supply]] | Mechanism | Failed |
| 28 | 2025-02 | [[metadao-hire-robin-hanson]] | Hiring | Passed |
| 29 | 2025-02 | [[metadao-release-launchpad]] | Strategy | Passed |
| — | 2025-08 | [[metadao-migrate-meta-token]] | Mechanism | Passed |
| — | 2026-02 | [[metadao-vc-discount-rejection]] | Treasury | Passed (rejected deal) |
| — | 2026-03 | [[metadao-ranger-finance-liquidation]] | Enforcement | Passed |
| — | 2026-03 | [[metadao-fund-futarchy-research-hanson-gmu]] | Operations | Active |
| — | 2026-03 | [[metadao-omnibus-migration-proposal]] | Mechanism | Passed |
| — | 2026-03 | [[metadao-otc-trade-theia-3]] | Treasury | Active |
## Competitive Position
- **First mover** in futarchy-governed organizations at scale
- **No direct competitor** for conditional-market governance on Solana
- **Indirect competitors**: Snapshot (token voting, free, widely adopted), Tally (onchain governance, Ethereum-focused)
- **Structural advantage**: the Futarchic AMM is purpose-built; no existing AMM can replicate conditional token market settlement
- **Key vulnerability**: depends on ecosystem project quality. Ranger liquidation and Trove collapse damaged credibility. Brand separation between MetaDAO curated launches and Futardio permissionless launches is an active design challenge.
## Investment Thesis
MetaDAO is the platform bet on futarchy as a governance mechanism. If decision markets prove superior to token voting, MetaDAO is the infrastructure layer that captures value from every futarchy-governed organization. Current evidence is mixed: the enforcement mechanism works (Ranger liquidation returned capital), but ecosystem quality varies (Trove collapse, Ranger token crash) and limited trading volume in uncontested decisions raises questions about mechanism utility at the margin.
**Thesis status:** ACTIVE
## Key Metrics to Track
- % of total futarchic market volume (market share of decision markets)
- Number of active projects with meaningful governance activity
- Curated ICO success rate (projects still active vs liquidated/abandoned)
- Futardio permissionless launch success rate
- Committed-to-raised ratio on new launches (trending from 200x → 1x)
- Ecosystem token aggregate market cap
## Relationship to KB
- [[MetaDAO is the futarchy launchpad on Solana where projects raise capital through unruggable ICOs governed by conditional markets creating the first platform for ownership coins at scale]] — core claim about MetaDAO
- [[MetaDAOs Autocrat program implements futarchy through conditional token markets where proposals create parallel pass and fail universes settled by time-weighted average price over a three-day window]] — mechanism description
- [[MetaDAOs futarchy implementation shows limited trading volume in uncontested decisions]] — known limitation
- [[futarchy-governed permissionless launches require brand separation to manage reputational liability because failed projects on a curated platform damage the platforms credibility]] — active design challenge
---
Relevant Entities:
- [[omnipair]] — leverage infrastructure for ecosystem
- [[proph3t]] — founder
- [[solomon]] — ecosystem launch
- [[futardio]] — permissionless launch platform
- [[umbra]] — first ownership coin launch
- [[ranger-finance]] — first liquidation
- [[p2p-me]] — most recent curated ICO
- [[superclaw]] — largest Futardio permissionless raise
Topics:
- [[internet finance and decision markets]]