CoW DAO has approved a proposal to reimburse users affected by the April 2026 cow.fi domain hijacking, despite the protocol itself never suffering a smart contract breach. According to reports from AMBCrypto, the governance proposal authorizes a discretionary grants program for users who lost funds during the phishing attack, which stemmed from a registrar-level domain takeover rather than a compromise of CoW Protocol infrastructure. The proposal allows eligible victims to receive up to 100% reimbursement for verified losses using funds from CoW DAO's Legal Defense Reserve.
Users lost an estimated $1.2 million during the incident after attackers redirected the cow.fi domain to a phishing website that tricked visitors into signing malicious wallet transactions. The phishing site remained active for several hours before the team recovered control of the domain. The proposal includes strict eligibility requirements for compensation, with users required to prove their wallet interacted with the malicious drainer contract tied to the fake CoW interface, had used CoW Swap before the attack, and complete KYC verification process.
According to the approved measure, CoW DAO will not compensate users who entered their wallet seed phrases into fake prompts during the attack. The distinction reflects a broader governance position within the proposal, treating malicious transaction approvals tied to the impersonated interface differently from direct disclosure of recovery phrases. Claims must be submitted by 14 May through CoW's support channels before the verification process begins, as reported by AMBCrypto.
Although the DAO approved reimbursements, the proposal repeatedly states that the payments remain voluntary and do not represent an admission of liability or legal fault. The document describes the grants as 'ex gratia' payments, meaning CoW DAO provides them as a goodwill gesture rather than a legal obligation. The reimbursements will come from CoW DAO's Legal Defense Reserve, a treasury allocation originally designed for legal and defensive actions, with the DAO treasury planning to replenish the reserve until it returns to its previous $5 million level after compensation payments conclude.
