TL:DR:
- The founder of ENS used approximately half of the protocol’s active voting power to block an on-chain proposal to renew the Security Council.
- The ENS DAO treasury holds about $350 million in total assets, which drops to $88 million if native ENS tokens are excluded.
- The governance token is trading around $4.07, representing a drop of more than 95% from its 2021 all-time high of $85.69.
ENS governance crisis escalated drastically following direct intervention from its founder. Nick Johnson halted an on-chain vote this Tuesday designed to extend the duties of the Ethereum Name Service protocol’s oversight body.
The official voting process concluded on June 30, 2026. Johnson utilized nearly 50% of the active voting supply to vote against the restructuring of the Security Council. This action came after the lead developer decided not to participate in the previous off-chain Snapshot vote.
The decision sparked concern regarding the organization’s levels of decentralization. In this regard, Lefteris Karapetsas, an active community delegate, stated that the resulting outcome strips the DAO of its effectiveness, arguing that the concentrated power protects millions in funds from external audits.
Absolutely to nobody's surprise Nick used 50% of the voting supply to vote down the onchain proposal to renew the Security council despite having abstained the offchain vote
Can't let that sweet ~$500m go to anybody else than him and his company!
And with that ENS DAO is dead pic.twitter.com/FOYNblG953
— Lefteris Karapetsas (@LefterisJP) June 30, 2026
Internal restructuring after the institutional block
A few hours after the on-chain rejection, an alternative draft was introduced on the organization’s forum to establish a new Security Council. The technical proposal, drafted by delegate katherine.eth, suggests replacing the previous structure with an eight-member committee chosen under a public mandate. The technical document stipulates that canceling temporarily locked proposals will require a supermajority of 5 out of 8 votes, raising the current requirement from 4 out of 8.
The ENS DAO X account confirmed that the nomination period will remain open until July 3, 2026. The plan seeks to regulate the council’s power to halt proposals approved by community vote before their final execution on the blockchain. Developers warn on the forum that these measures should only be applied to repel malicious or coercive attacks against the protocol’s treasury.
The disparity between the total capitalization of the governance token and the treasury reserves worsens participant tensions. Data from DeFiLlama indicates that the DAO maintains capital under custody of $350 million dollars. However, when subtracting the ENS asset from the equation, net funds stand at $88 million dollars. According to the CoinMarketCap platform, the circulating market cap of the asset revolves around $166 million dollars during the June 30, 2026 session.
The commercial price sits at $4.07 dollars per unit at the close of this edition, dragging a sustained depreciation. Historical data reflects a loss of value exceeding 95% compared to the peak price of $85.69 dollars reached in November 2021. This financial gap incentivizes the emergence of so-called “residual floating value takeover attacks.” Through this method, an operator with sufficient capital could acquire tokens on the open market to force governance decisions and extract resources from the treasury lucratively.
Divisions within the foundation and future plans
Opinions regarding the direction of Johnson’s vote appear polarized across the community’s communication channels. Active member AvsA expounded that the previous motion by ENS Labs did not constitute an aggression against the governance system and that resorting to an absolute veto was disproportionate. Despite this, the delegate warned that the absence of an operational Security Council raises the network’s financial risks to critical levels.
The current conflict represents the second documented internal governance clash in a period of less than two weeks. Last June 19, 2026, a separate proposal was presented to transfer operational management, grant allocation, and financial control directly to the ENS Foundation. Some ecosystem analysts, such as the author of the protocol’s constitution Brantly Millegan, pointed out that this reform centralizes decision-making powers away from the token holder community.
Previous reports suggest that this ecosystem restructuring responds to the generalized fatigue of governance delegates. Likewise, it is influenced by the limited accountability of fund recipients and the difficulties the DAO faces in executing long-term capital strategies based solely on traditional token voting. The final resolution of the new committee will constitute the protocol’s next verifiable milestone during the upcoming weeks of the 2026 summer period.
