ENS DAO has approved a comprehensive governance proposal that transforms the ENS Foundation into a full-time operating body with five voting directors and professional staff. According to official ENS announcements, the structure includes three independent members alongside ENS founder Nick Johnson and Alexander Urbelis, who will serve as executive director. Independent directors will receive 40,000 USDC annually with two-year terms that the DAO may renew. The vote passed with roughly 70% support and took effect onchain Tuesday, August 11. Tokenholders retain control over protocol upgrades, fees, DAO-held tokens, and board appointments, with removal processes requiring written petitions and 30-day voting periods. The initial board includes Alexander Urbelis, Nick Johnson, Kartik Talwar, Brett Sun, and Anthony Leutenegger.
The approved structure provides the foundation with administrative control of the Endowment Safe holding approximately $65 million in ETH and stablecoins as of July 2026. As reported by ENS, endowment transactions will pass through a nine-day timelock by default, allowing the ENS Security Council to cancel unauthorized transactions. The endowment is funded through revenue from .eth name registration fees and remains at its existing address rather than being transferred to a new wallet. The proposal includes 1 million ENS tokens transferred to the Foundation Safe for future employee compensation, with grants requiring multiyear vesting and independent board approval for director compensation. The DAO's approximately 54.6 million ENS tokens remain under existing on-chain controls, with the foundation not granted general authority over them.
The foundation gains legal standing to handle work beyond on-chain governance, including institutional agreements, permanent employment, and intellectual property management. According to ENS, the foundation will manage ENS trademarks, brand assets, and other intellectual property while licensing relevant rights to ENS Labs through existing grant relationships. The structure enables the foundation to represent ENS before internet standards bodies including ICANN, Internet Engineering Task Force, and World Wide Web Consortium. At ICANN, the foundation plans to pursue formal recognition and stewardship of .ens as a top-level domain, potentially determining how blockchain-based names interact with conventional Domain Name Systems. The foundation will also serve as a formal counterparty for courts, registrars, standards organizations and other institutions. The restructuring separates operational responsibilities from protocol development, with ENS Labs continuing to build the protocol including the planned ENSv2 upgrade.
The new setup maintains ENS tokenholder control over critical protocol decisions while separating operational work from governance. As reported by ENS, protocol control remains exclusively with ENS tokenholders for smart contract upgrades, registration prices, fee structures, constitutional changes, root key management, and registry controls. ENS Labs will continue operating as a separate Singapore-based entity with its own management and board, while the foundation holds intellectual property rights and licenses them to ENS Labs. Current grants, service-provider commitments, and active payment streams will continue until scheduled end dates, with future grant work moving under foundation management. The DAO's separate operational wallet, which held approximately $16 million in ETH and stablecoins as of July, also remains under DAO control. The changes follow a contentious governance dispute involving Johnson and the Security Council, seeking clearer responsibilities while strengthening ENS's ability to operate beyond its decentralized governance system.
