Token Votes Now Drive Hard Forks, Fee Switches, and Treasury Picks
Cardano and Solana gated L1 upgrades by supermajority; Uniswap, Aave, Arbitrum, and NEAR set fee, treasury, and monetary policy on-chain. The next step is AI agents doing the proposing.
Across L1s and DeFi, on-chain governance has stopped being a ratification ritual and become the control plane for protocol policy. Cardano’s Van Rossem hard fork was the first fully on-chain-governed upgrade, proposed, debated, ratified, and enacted via Voltaire, passing with 77.63% DRep support and 52.7% SPO support [^claim_1076]. Solana’s Alpenglow upgrade — built for a 100x speed increase — cleared SIMD-0326 with 98.27% approval from stakers, with roughly 52% of all staked tokens participating [^claim_1078].
DeFi shows the same pattern with economic policy. Uniswap’s UNIfication proposal passed at 99.9% support, activated the fee switch, and burned 100M UNI; Governance Proposal 100 expanded the fee switch to v4 pools on seven networks, lifting daily protocol revenue from $114,000 to $325,000 [^claim_1079]. Aave’s ‘Aave Will Win’ passed at nearly 75% support, sending 100% of gross revenue from Aave-branded products directly to the DAO treasury, while Aave Labs gets $25M in stablecoins and 75k AAVE vesting over four years [^claim_1082].
Treasury and monetary policy are now on-chain decisions too. Arbitrum’s STEP 2 proposal allocated 35M ARB (~$11.6M) into tokenized U.S. Treasurys, with 35% to Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX, 35% to Spiko’s USTBL, and 30% to WisdomTree’s WTGXX — nearly 89% voted in favor [^claim_1080]. NEAR’s House of Stake approved HSP-027 to eliminate the developer gas rebate, so all eligible execution fees will be burned, starting with nearcore v2.14 [^claim_1081].
Governance mechanics are tightening accordingly. A GRAIN Token DAO proposal on Aragon enforces an approval threshold above 67%, minimum participation of 20% (≥42B GRAIN), and proposer threshold of ≥1B GRAIN [^claim_1084]; 15 major DAOs now use quadratic, conviction, or delegated proof-of-stake voting [^claim_1085]. The leading edge is AI×DAO co-governance: ARK DeFAI’s first proposal — a staking-cycle plan — passed with 99% approval and fully implements within 24 hours [^claim_1083].
The pattern is unmistakable: hard-fork gating, fee-switch activation, RWA treasury allocation, and fee-burn policy are all supermajority decisions, not core-team decrees. Cardano even let on-chain governance ratify the Plutus cost model, at 68.57% DRep approval [^claim_1077], meaning the smart-contract fee schedule is now a governance parameter. Uniswap’s fee switch alters MEV and liquidity incentives across seven networks; Arbitrum’s STEP 2 turns the DAO into a programmatic RWA investor; NEAR’s burn-vs-rebate decision is monetary policy. Watch for AI agents to operationalize these powers further — ARK DeFAI already flags the template: an AI-shaped proposal passed at 99% support [^claim_1083].
Provenance ledger
6 span-verified · 4 web-cited6 claims below are locked to a verbatim span re-verified against the source. The remaining 4 are web citations: the URL was checked, but the excerpt is the researcher's summary and was not re-derived from the page. Citation markers in the text jump here.
[1] Cardano’s Van Rossem hard fork (Protocol Version 11) was the first hard fork to be fully proposed, debated, ratified, and enacted via on-chain governance, passing with 77.63% DRep support and 52.7% stake pool operator support, and a Constitutional Committee vote of 6-0-0-1. span-verified
“Cardano activated the Van Rossem hard fork on July 18, 2026… This on-chain event marks the first fully on-chain governance hard fork in the network’s history… Delegated representatives approved the proposal with 77.63% support, stake pool operators supported it with 52.7% approval, and the Constitutional Committee voted 6-0-0-1.”
7e751733871921c86da32a3a707ce0bca883197aaae4d165c984c1ab774005d5 [2] The Van Rossem hard fork was ratified on July 13, 2026 under Cardano’s Voltaire on-chain governance framework, advancing Cardano to protocol version 11 with cheaper smart contracts and new Plutus features, and a Plutus testnet cost model ratification received 68.57% DRep approval on June 13. span-verified
“The van Rossem hard fork was ratified on July 13 through the network’s Voltaire on-chain governance framework, with enactment scheduled for July 18… advancing Cardano to protocol version 11 with cheaper smart contracts and new Plutus features… The Plutus cost model for testnets was ratified with 68.57% DRep approval by June 13.”
76298587204ca5d30a290c46434821bcc2235f75e81283a10ef02c99f1505f55 [3] Solana governance proposal SIMD-0326, enabling the Alpenglow upgrade that targets a 100x speed increase, passed in September 2025 with 98.27% approval, with roughly 52% of all staked tokens participating in the vote. span-verified
“The upgrade has been in the works since at least September 2025, when governance proposal SIMD-0326 passed with 98.27% approval from stakeholders, with roughly 52% of all staked tokens participating in the vote.”
6b016961cbfae68e8e8dae30dc38fc59db56ab16fb54eebc35ef889c025032b3 [4] Uniswap’s UNIfication governance proposal, passed in December 2025 with 99.9% support, activated the protocol fee switch and burned an initial tranche of 100,000,000 UNI tokens; Governance Proposal 100, passed in July 2026 with 99.9% support (125,000,000 tokens for, 742 against), expanded the fee switch to v4 pools across seven networks, increasing daily protocol revenue from $114,000 to $325,000. span-verified
“The UNIfication proposal passed with 99.9% support, activated the fee switch, and burned 100 million UNI tokens… Governance Proposal 100 expanded the fee switch to v4 pools across seven networks in July 2026, pushing daily protocol revenue from $114,000 to $325,000 and covering Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, BNB Chain, Polygon, OP Mainnet, and Robinhood Chain… It passed with 99.9% support, with 125 million tokens voting in favor and 742 against.”
fb090f32c887a742b9969ffb38aae39b58cdc223a5d66e21e61f1ac09a1c3d04 [5] The Arbitrum DAO approved the STEP 2 treasury diversification, allocating 35,000,000 ARB (worth around $11,600,000 at the time) into tokenized U.S. Treasurys, with 35% allocated to Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX (tokenized as BENJI), 35% to Spiko’s USTBL, and 30% to WisdomTree’s WTGXX; almost 89% of participants voted in favor, 0.01% against, and around 11% abstained. web-cited
“it will allocate 35 million ARB, worth around $11.6 million at current prices, to tokenized U.S. Treasurys… the STEP committee recommended an allocation of 35% to Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX (tokenized as BENJI), 35% to Spiko’s USTBL, and 30% to WisdomTree’s WTGXX… Almost 89% of the participants voted in favor of the allocations… Only 0.01% voted against, and around 11% chose to abstain.”
This excerpt was not re-derived from the source page, and may paraphrase or condense it. Check the source before relying on it.
[6] NEAR Protocol’s on-chain governance body House of Stake passed proposal HSP-027 between June 20 and 27, 2026, voting to eliminate the developer gas rebate entirely so that, starting with nearcore v2.14 (expected around August 2026), every eligible execution fee will be burned instead of partially returned to smart contract owners. span-verified
“House of Stake, passed proposal HSP-027 between June 20 and 27, 2026, voting to eliminate the developer gas rebate entirely. Starting with a nearcore upgrade expected around August 2026, every eligible execution fee on the network will be burned rather than partially returned to smart-contract owners. The implementation timeline is tied to the nearcore v2.14 upgrade.”
da203d20f8ace7368187a1bfad5211bed7cfd9826d2d10df706599f08458662b [7] Aave DAO’s ‘Aave Will Win’ (AWW) proposal was passed with nearly 75% support, redirecting 100% of gross revenue from Aave-branded products (including Aave Pro, Aave App, Horizon, and Aave Kit) directly to the DAO treasury, while granting Aave Labs a $25,000,000 stablecoin allocation over 12 months and 75,000 AAVE tokens vesting over four years. web-cited
“Aave’s DAO voted with nearly 75% support to route all product revenue to AAVE token holders under the new ‘Aave Will Win’ framework… Under the new framework, 100% of gross revenue generated by Aave-branded products — including Aave Pro, Aave App, Horizon, and Aave Kit — flows directly to the DAO treasury… Aave Labs received a $25 million stablecoin allocation payable over 12 months and 75,000 AAVE tokens vesting over four years.”
This excerpt was not re-derived from the source page, and may paraphrase or condense it. Check the source before relying on it.
[8] The ARK DeFAI DAO’s first AI×DAO co-governance proposal, a new staking cycle plan, was passed with a 99% approval rate and is slated to be fully implemented within 24 hours, explicitly aimed at optimizing the protocol’s lock-up period and long-term incentive mechanisms to strengthen consensus participants’ commitment. web-cited
“The ARK DeFAI first proposal was officially passed with a 99% approval rate, marking the beginning of a new era of AI × DAO co-governance… The approved proposal is a new staking cycle plan, which will be fully implemented within 24 hours, further optimizing the protocol's lock-up period and long-term incentive mechanisms, strengthening the commitment of consensus participants to the stability and development of the protocol.”
This excerpt was not re-derived from the source page, and may paraphrase or condense it. Check the source before relying on it.
[9] A token-voting proposal for the GRAIN Token DAO (Aragon TOKENVOTING-11) sets an approval threshold of >67%, a minimum participation of ≥20% (≥42,000,000,000 GRAIN), and requires proposers to hold ≥1,000,000,000 GRAIN voting power or balance; voting is configured with disabled early execution and enabled vote change over a minimum duration of 4 hours. web-cited
“Approval threshold > 67%… Minimum participation ≥ 20% (≥ 42B GRAIN)… Proposal threshold Members with ≥ 1,000,000,000 GRAIN voting power or balance… Minimum duration 0 days 4 hours 0 minutes… Early execution Disabled… Vote change Enabled.”
This excerpt was not re-derived from the source page, and may paraphrase or condense it. Check the source before relying on it.
[10] By April 2026, at least 15 major DAOs had adopted quadratic voting (voting power is the square root of tokens held), conviction voting (votes decay over time unless reinforced), or delegated proof-of-stake for governance, with delegated proof-of-stake specifically described as the default for treasury management DAOs. span-verified
“Quadratic voting (where voting power is the square root of tokens held) has been adopted by 15 major DAOs, including Gitcoin and Optimism. Conviction voting (votes decay over time unless reinforced) is used by 1Hive and others. And Delegated proof-of-stake (where holders delegate to expert voters) has become the default for treasury management DAOs.”
da2e3486ca2eab35eb66906237ee0e9f88469da0fde8231d29c989b376f2a868 Sources
- https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/cardano-completes-first-fully-on-chain-governance-hard-fork
- https://cryptobriefing.com/cardano-van-rossem-hard-fork-ratified/
- https://cryptobriefing.com/solana-alpenglow-100x-speed-upgrade-q3-2026/
- https://crypto.news/uniswap-fee-switch-defi-governance/
- https://www.binance.com/en/square/post/23984932251985
- https://www.bitget.com/asia/amp/news/detail/12560605494219
- https://unchainedcrypto.com/aave-dao-passes-aave-will-win-proposal-directing-100-of-product-revenue-to-token-holders-unchained/
- http://www.rootdata.com/news/395631
- https://app.aragon.org/dao/base-mainnet-0x636e9b6393b33a80939a235D80FA4b16393a25Fb/proposals/TOKENVOTING-11
- https://pen-caforr.org/2026/04/15/dao-governance-2026-hybrid-models-legal-wrappers-and-the-end-of-token-voting/