ApeCoin DAO Set to Cut Ties with Administrator Over Fees

New CEO Joins Yuga Labs From Activision Blizzard

Decentralized organizations run entirely on blockchains have been one of crypto’s most promising, but also most challenging applications. 

In the latest chapter in the world of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), ApeCoin DAO, which governs the APE community, is on the brink of terminating its relationship with the firm handling its administration.

Cartan Group is the subject of AIP-183, a proposal which seeks to increase the management consulting company’s fees from $150,000 a month to a monthly stipend of $250,000 as well as 20,000 APE tokens, worth around $70,000 as of Dec. 20.

Cartan is responsible for managing the APE improvement proposal (AIP) governance process, administrative reporting and insight, communications, and ecosystem grant funding, according to a post by Brian Tang, the co-founder of the firm.

Voting ends on Dec. 21, and it appears unlikely that APE holders will retain Cartan at the increased rate —  with nearly 10M APE tokens voting, over 76% have voted against AIP-183.

Tang emphasized the expanded scope of Cartan’s responsibilities, both after the firm was initially contracted by the DAO, and forthcoming efforts, as reasons for the increased rates. 

Some DAO members question whether the Apecoin DAO should be increasing Cartan’s duties or scaling them back. “Consolidating operations under a central entity who was tasked with decentralizing operations is a step backwards for the DAO’s autonomy,” one user replied. 

Like most crypto projects, the APE community is dealing with a cooling market. Bored Apes, the flagship NFTs of the ApeCoin ecosystem, have dropped 81% in dollar terms from their peak floor price in April of just over $420,000.

With a 38% drop in the last three months, the APE token has greatly underperformed the world’s two largest digital assets — BTC is down 9%, and ETH is down 12% in that span, according to The Defiant Terminal. 

ETH Price + BTC Price + APE Price, Source: The Defiant Terminal

As the novelty effect wears off, community stakeholders need to dig in in order to grow the APE ecosystem. 

David Alegre Joins Yuga As CEO

Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Apes and a major stakeholder in the APE ecosystem, is shaking up its leadership team amidst rough market conditions — David Alegre, the former president and COO of the video game giant, Activision Blizzard, joined Yuga as its CEO on Dec. 19.

“We’ve known for a long time we wanted to bring in someone with a proven track record of building at the highest possible level,” wrote Yuga’s two most prominent founders, Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow.