«RFV Raiders» target Gnosis DAO for treasury redemption proposal
Source: Protos
Chopper, Foresight News
A group of radical investors (or so-called treasury "predators") is proposing a treasury redemption plan targeting GNO token holders.
GIP-150 proposes a one-time, voluntary, pro-rata treasury redemption program. If approved, supporters will receive a pro-rata share of over $220 million in reserve funds from the Gnosis DAO treasury.
This proposal comes less than six months after the Gnosis DAO voted to remove the former treasury manager, KPK. The proposal’s initiator, Wismerhill, stated that the market price of GNO tokens has long been trading at a discount to the Gnosis DAO treasury’s net asset value, and this discount has been widening over time.
He added that, despite the DAO's recent allocation of $22.5 million to Gnosis Ltd, the discount of the token relative to net assets has widened further, with GNO capturing minimal value appreciation.
The proposal voting is currently open, with a deadline of May 12. Although initial support votes were significantly ahead, 65% of the 330,000 votes cast so far are against the proposal.
The redemption amount will be calculated proportionally based on 1.3 million eligible GNO tokens; tokens held by Gnosis Ltd. are not eligible for redemption. The rationale provided in the proposal is that this entity has long been supported by DAO funding.
Based on this calculation, the redemption value per token is approximately $170, nearly 30% higher than GNO’s current market price of $131.
Reactions from various parts of the DeFi community
DeFi commentator and GNO holder Ignas admitted: "The logic behind RFV does make some sense," but also pointed out that "this is purely an arbitrage transaction and hardly qualifies as an ethical move," and he has cast his vote against it. (Note: RFV stands for risk-free value.)
Ivangbi, DeFi lead at the Ethereum Foundation, holds a similar view: since Gnosis never publicly marketed its treasury assets as backing the token price, holders have no moral right to claim a share of the treasury.
Many also recognize Gnosis’s contributions to the ecosystem and disagree with this proposal. Gnosis owns key infrastructure projects such as Safe, CoW Swap, Gnosis Pay, and Gnosis Chain.
Gnosis founder Sebastian Bürgel bluntly asked: when did the most respected ecosystem builders become targets for hedge fund extraction? Jito ecosystem lead Nick Almond directly labeled the proposal as an outright treasury dump and exit scam.
Anthony Leutenegger, representing the Aragon team that was targeted by similar forces in 2023, offered a more balanced and rational perspective. He called for the industry to improve programmed token holder rights mechanisms to better align incentives and resolve such disputes.
Past RFV sniper cases
This group launched similar treasury arbitrage actions multiple times in 2023, leading the industry to label them as RFV掠夺者, though the group does not endorse this term.
Projects targeted at the time included Rook, FEI/Tribe, and Aragon, with Aragon ultimately being forced to repurpose its treasury funds into an ecosystem grant program.
Not long ago, Beefy Finance swiftly introduced a buyback mechanism for its BIFI token after it fell below its treasury net asset value in April, specifically to guard against sudden arbitrage attacks by RFV forces.
Regarding the Gnosis incident, the proposal initiator, Wismerhill, previously admitted to having great admiration for the Gnosis DAO and had anticipated that, after the removal of KPK, Gnosis would make more business-oriented decisions.
This vote will ultimately determine whether GNO holders value short-term commercial arbitrage gains or long-term ecosystem development.
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