Nearly ten years after the largest hack in Ethereum's history, The DAO is back. Seven curators, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, are launching a 220 million dollar security fund. The capital comes from 70,500 ETH that went unclaimed since the 2016 hard fork.
This fund combines a staking pool of 69,420 ETH worth roughly 207 million dollars with a direct grant pool of 13.5 million dollars. Staking is expected to generate approximately 8 million dollars in annual yield. As a result, a permanent funding source for Ethereum's security infrastructure emerges.
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The original DAO hack and its aftermath
In April 2016, The DAO raised around 150 million dollars from over 11,000 investors. That represented about 14 percent of all ETH tokens in existence at the time, making it the largest crowdfunding project of its era. The DAO promised decentralized investment decisions without any central authority.
On June 17, 2016, an attacker exploited a reentrancy vulnerability in the Solidity code. Around 3.6 million ETH were drained, worth between 50 and 70 million dollars at the time. Consequently, 4.5 percent of all existing ETH was affected. Now the community faced a fundamental question: accept the theft or roll back the blockchain.
The decision fell in favor of a hard fork. Miners executed it on July 20, 2016, and roughly 12 million ETH were recovered. Still, the community split. About 10 percent rejected the intervention and continued the original chain as Ethereum Classic. Just four days after the fork, the first exchanges listed the ETC token.
From unclaimed funds to security fund
Not all token holders claimed their refunds. As a result, 70,500 ETH remained in the recovery contracts for nearly a decade. A separate Curator Multisig Pool holds 4,600 ETH. It mainly contains funds that were accidentally sent to the DAO contract or the Withdraw Contract over ten years. Back in 2016, the curators had already determined that unclaimed assets should benefit Ethereum security. Ultimately, the massive appreciation of ETH turned leftover funds into a substantial treasury.
A grant pool of 13.5 million dollars is available for direct funding. Meanwhile, the much larger staking pool generates ongoing revenue without depleting the principal. In total, the fund covers eight areas: Mainnet Security, Layer-2 solutions, Smart Contract Security, Incident Response, Security Research, User Protection, Infrastructure, and Security Education.
Governance with prominent curators
Seven individuals form the curator board of the new fund. Beyond Vitalik Buterin, the group includes Taylor Monahan (Metamask), Jordi Baylina (ZisK), pcaversaccio (SEAL 911), Alex Van de Sande (ENS), Griff Green (Giveth), and Pol Lanski (Dappnode). Additionally, the Ethereum Foundation serves as the Eligibility Setter.
Griff Green plays a central role. He was already a curator and community manager of The DAO in 2016. After the hack, he co-founded the White Hat Group, which secured around 10 percent of the total ETH supply. He then went on to rescue 210 million dollars following the 2017 Parity Multisig Hack. His organization Giveth now provides operational support for the new fund.
For distributing funds, the initiative relies on three mechanisms: Quadratic Funding, Retroactive Public Goods Funding, and Ranked-Choice RFP Voting. Quadratic Funding weighs the breadth of community support more heavily than individual large donations. In contrast, Retroactive Funding rewards contributions already delivered. Ranked-Choice RFP Voting then allows the board to select projects by priority.
Buterin's decentralization agenda for 2026
The DAO's revival fits into Vitalik Buterin's broader vision for 2026. The Ethereum co-founder recently called for a "reset" to Ethereum's cypherpunk origins. He specifically criticized a gradual retreat from decentralization principles over the past decade.
Buterin explicitly backs DAOs as a governance instrument. He wants "More DAOs - but different and better DAOs." Originally, the motivation behind Ethereum was strongly inspired by decentralized autonomous organizations. The DAO as an Ethereum Security Fund thus represents a return to its roots, but with a pragmatic focus on security rather than general investment decisions.
The ambition is significant. With 220 million dollars and sustainable staking yield, the fund commands substantial resources. At the same time, it carries the legacy of an initiative that failed spectacularly in 2016. Yet the curator board, staffed with experienced security experts and Ethereum veterans, is meant to mark exactly that difference.
