Yuga Labs CEO Greg Solano has introduced a bold proposal to dissolve the community-led ApeCoin DAO and merge its resources into a centralized entity named ApeCo. The plan claims that the current DAO has become cumbersome, inefficient, and prone to low-impact initiatives hindering strategic progress across the broader Ape ecosystem.
If approved via on-chain vote, the DAO’s treasury totaling over 168 million APE tokens along with intellectual property, smart contracts, legal obligations, and working group infrastructures, would transfer to ApeCo. The new vehicle, controlled by Yuga Labs, would focus resources on core pillars like ApeChain, the Bored Ape Yacht Club and the metaverse project Otherside, with initial allocations set aside for staking incentives and legal costs.
The proposal has already drawn support, with voting participation nearing thresholds and approval rates above 99 percent among participants. But critics say the shift fundamentally erodes community governance. Detractors argue that centralizing treasury control could damage decentralization norms and alienate DAO token holders who supported the original model.
Yuga’s leadership counters that a leaner, professionally managed entity is necessary to reinvigorate ecosystem growth and reduce bureaucracy. The Ape Improvement Proposal framing suggests this change is a strategic reset, emphasizing efficiency and clarity in decision-making aligned with Yuga’s development goals.
As voting continues through June 26, the outcome will signal whether high-profile NFT ecosystems can pivot from decentralized ideals to streamlined operational models. The result could also influence how other DAOs contemplate their futures in balancing community control with organizational agility.
