The Ethereum Name Service just took a major step toward growing up. ENS DAO tokenholders voted to hand administrative control of a roughly $65 million endowment to a newly established ENS Foundation, a legally recognized entity based in the Cayman Islands that will now manage grants, intellectual property, and policy engagement on behalf of the protocol.
What the vote actually changes
The proposal, titled “Next Era of ENS DAO: Empowering the ENS Foundation,” passed on August 11, 2026. It creates a formal legal entity with a full-time Executive Director, dedicated staff, and a five-member board of directors.
Alexander Urbelis will serve as the inaugural Executive Director, with ENS founder Nick Johnson also joining the board alongside three independent members. Board members will receive $40,000 in USDC annually for two-year terms.
The Foundation now has administrative authority over the Endowment Safe, which held approximately $65 million in ETH and stablecoins as of July 2026. That endowment traces back to March 2023, when it was seeded with a 16,000 ETH tranche sourced from domain registration fees.
Security-wise, the new structure includes a nine-day timelock on all transactions from the endowment. The ENS Security Council retains the ability to cancel any action during that window.
The DAO keeps its leverage
Tokenholders retain direct control over roughly 54.6 million ENS tokens, which represents the protocol’s core treasury and governance authority.
The Foundation does receive a one-time transfer of 1 million ENS tokens, but those come with strings attached. They’re earmarked exclusively for employee compensation and cannot be used to vote on governance proposals or otherwise influence DAO decision-making.
The split creates a clean division of labor. The DAO handles big-picture governance decisions and treasury management. The Foundation handles the stuff that requires a legal entity with a mailing address: hiring employees, signing contracts, engaging with regulators, and managing relationships with organizations like ICANN for top-level domain recognition.