Treasury Diversification + Unlocks

Hey,

With the May 17th ecosystem unlock coming up, I wanted to resurface the Q4 conversation on treasury management and diversification.

In October, @0xsword proposed that the DAO a) diversify into ETH + stables b) nominate a treasury council to steer strategy c) test allocating a small percentage to liquidity and farming.

TLDR: The Q4 treasury proposal got a lot of traction and support but trailed off after two months of back and forth. There were some concerns around nominating a council and how that aligned with the ethos of a DAO. There were also some questions around how best to approach treasury diversification.

Current State: The majority (>95%) of ApeCoin’s treasury is in its native asset which makes the treasury balance sheet incredibly risky. Over the last year, APE has dropped 75% which in turn naturally impacted the treasury heavily. Diversifying into blue chips such as ETH, or more stables, would hedge the treasury against further market volatility or an extended bear market.

Unlocks & Treasury Mgmt: In addition to bear market realities, token unlocks create an added layer of complexity / consideration wrt sell pressure. ApeCoin has regular unlocks slated until 2026. This past February’s unlock and the lead up to that unlock resulted in significant price volatility. It might make a lot of sense to bundle the treasury diversification conversations along with ecosystem unlocks.

Going Forward: As the bear market and market volatility continues, it’s important that ApeCoin iron out the best way to approach and test out those approaches. In an ideal world, ApeCoin should have an array of strategies + tools to a) sell tokens responsibly b) diversify treasury. This holds true across treasury tokens, team tokens etc.

SIZE x APE: SIZE is an on-chain OTC protocol — treasuries can diversify & sell tokens without slippage or market impact. The latest blog on treasury management nests well with the above.

Hindsight bias is real. A lot of treasuries and communities fall into the holding pattern of “the price is too low or price is going higher.” To solve for this, we’d recommend DCA by selling monthly or quarterly. Exploring locked options to prevent market dumping would also be advised. Given other treasury approaches, would suggest moving up to 25% into stables.

  • Adding blue chips into the mix to further hedge treasury, upside exposure.
  • Sell on a quarterly basis versus annually.
  • SIZE’s vesting options to prevent immediate market dumping.
  • Revisit conversation around farming + staking.

Would love to see if there’s a way for APE to benefit from SIZE. Also love any thoughts or feedback.

Thanks!

Nicole + SIZE Team

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Hey Nic!

Welcome. You marked this as an AIP idea, but it seems more of a General discussion. If this is an AIP idea/proposal, more specifics of it would be good.

Overall, the conversation makes sense. Much of what you’re saying can be done without SIZE, so I think for clarity would be good to see SIZE’s specific differentiation (scheduling trades, helping time the “tops” near scheduled dates, reducing costs of trades by X%, etc.)

I’m just not clear on what exactly is offered here and its advantage over competition/going without the tool.

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Times have certainly changed.

Diversifying with ETH is not diversification at all, and stablecoins are only stable so long as government says they can be or until the next major failure of confidence or exploit of a rubbish algo.

Proper protection would be a hedging strategy, primarily via shorting within crypto or holding (and shorting) assets outside of anything digital / tech.

What that might do to the DAO’s legal standing, in an already-hostile and rapidly evolving legal environment, is anyone’s guess but it probably won’t make the road smoother from a present or future regulatory standpoint.

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Hello @Nic!

I noticed this topic is published as an AIP Idea, but I’m wondering if you wanted this to be a General post?

Currently, categorized as an Idea, the topic will close in 5 hours and we will require you to format this post with the AIP Draft Template.

Please let me know if you’d like me to recategorize your post to continue the conversation with the community. :slight_smile:

Thank you!

-Amplify

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Hey Nicole,

You might find it helpful to take a look at the efforts that are ongoing to create a Treasury working group. If this AIP is successful, there will be a vote to elect the Stewards of this Working Group. The Steward will then be responsible for requesting a budget for specific initiatives

Treasury management and diversification will no doubt be amongst those initiatives.

This discourse post might be a good place to discuss ideas around treasury diversification, and to connect with other people who are working on the same issue: AIP-242: Working Group Charter - Treasury

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