We are excited to publish the ArbitrumDAO Governance Analytics Report, covering key governance metrics and insights for February 2025. This report marks a significant milestone in our efforts to enhance transparency and foster informed decision-making within the ArbitrumDAO community.
TLDR;
Participation Trends: On-chain and off-chain participation slightly decreased in February 2025
Proposal Outcomes: A total of eight proposals were voted on, with seven approved and only one rejected " Arbitrum Growth Circles Event Proposal "
Voting Participation: All proposals had below-average participation compared to their category.
Delegate Spotlight: GMX is now the top 20 delegate in ArbitrumDAO, holding 8M ARB in voting power. However, they have yet to participate in any voting.
Key Takeaway: February experienced a slight decrease in overall participation, the DAO saw an increase in the number of active delegates. Additionally, 5 new delegates have now met the minimum threshold required to participate in DIP.
A) Voting Participation Trend
Participation Rate: Average voting power cast per proposal / votable supply
In February 2025, ArbitrumDAO observed a slightly decrease in governance participation rates across both onchain and offchain. This report outlines the key trends in participation metrics and voting power, along with potential contributing factors.
Onchain: Participation dropped slightly by 2.41 percentage points from January
Offchain: Participation slightly decreased by 1.01 percentage points from January
Unique Voters: The number of voter who vote within the month
Onchain Voters:
Unique onchain voters increased by 403, from 5,788 in January to 6,191 in February, reflecting stronger participation in onchain proposals.
Offchain Voters:
Unique offchain voters also increased by 328, from 5,526 in January to 5,908 in February.
Voting Power: Average voting power of proposal participation
Onchain Voting Power:
The average onchain voting power decreased by about 5.74%, from 210.7 million down to 198.6 million.
Offchain Voting Power:
The average voting power increased by 0.71%, from 154.2 million to 155.3 million.
New Voter: New voter who cast first vote in February
In February 2025, there were 548 new onchain voters compared to 103 new offchain voters. Onchain participation dropped sharply from 625 new voters in January to 548 in February, while offchain participation declined significantly from 170 new voters in January to 103 in February.
Potential Contributing Factors
Participation in February 2025 slightly declined, likely because many active ArbitrumDAO delegates were attending ETHDenver , which could temporarily reduced their engagement. Overall, the impact was minimal, and participation quickly stabilized as delegates resumed their regular activities after the event. Additionally, several delegates using Safe Wallet were unable to vote on the proposal due to complications arising from the Bybit hack , which rendered its front end temporarily unavailable on the Arbitrum Network.
B) Voter Dynamic
Existing Voters
An examination of the changes in voting power among existing delegates reveals significant shifts among 42 delegates.
Increases: 12 delegates increased their voting power, accounting for an addition 12.59M of ARB tokens in total notable example includes:
- GMX has experienced a significant surge in ARB tokens, increasing from 2.9k to 8 million ARB and positioning them among the top 20 delegates. However, they have yet to participate in any voting. Their active involvement in governance could be a major win by boosting discussions and enhancing overall voter participation.
- Entropy has gained substantial voting power, increasing from 5.6M to 8.8M ARB.
- Castlecapital.eth has continued to expand its influence, with its voting power increasing from 122k to 566k ARB.
- Linzerd, zeptimus.eth, empyreal.eth, rawrau.eth, and klausbrave.eth, each has boosted their voting power beyond the 50k threshold, meaning they now all meet the minimum requirement to participate in DIP.
Decreases: 30 delegates saw a decrease in voting power totaling a reduction of -18.69M ARB Tokens.
including 3 losing all their ARB tokens, signaling significant disengagement or divestment from ArbitrumDAO.
B) Voter Dynamic (cont.)
Delegate Status Shifts:
Active (delegates who maintain over 65% voting participation both onchain and offchain within the past 90 days): In February 2025, the number of active delegates in ArbitrumDAO increased from 84 in January to 91, reflecting an increase of 7 delegates.
Inactive (delegates who maintain less than 65% voting participation either onchain or offchain within the past 90 days): The number of inactive delegates decreased in February 2025 to 123, down from 125 in January 2025.
Ghost Delegates (delegates who, despite receiving delegation, have not exercised their voting power): The number of ghost delegates decreased from 791 in January to 787 in February.
Implications of Changes in Delegate Status: In February 2025, active delegates increased from 84 to 91, showing better overall participation, while inactive delegates continues to decrease in February, ghost delegates slightly dropped from 791 to 787, indicating an improvement in voter engagement. Overall, these changes suggest that ArbitrumDAO is slowly becoming more active.
C) Proposal Outcome
This section provides an analysis of the outcomes and levels of contentiousness of proposals within ArbitrumDAO’s governance during February 2025, with particular attention to the voting behaviors of the top 20 voters by voting power. A total of 8 proposals were reviewed during this period, comprising of four in grants, one in treasury, one in operation and two in protocol updates.
Onchain Proposals
1.Non-Constitutional: Stable Treasury Endowment Program 2.0
Category: Treasury
Overview: This proposal seeks 35 million Arb to fund the Stable Treasury Endowment Program (STEP) 2.0, which aims to diversify the Arbitrum DAO treasury and promote ecosystem growth for RWA protocols on Arbitrum.
Voter Participation: 4.8k voters participated, below the category average for treasury of 5.1k voters
Voting Power casted: 194.4M ARB were cast, which is less than the category average of 172.2M ARB
Level of contentiousness: The proposal received nearly unanimous support, with minimal opposition.
Top 20 voters: The majority of the top 20 delegates voted in favor. However, only EventHorizon voted against, and Entropy abstained due to a conflict of interest.
2.OpCo: A DAO-adjacent Entity for Strategy Execution
Category: Operations
Overview: This proposal seeks to request 22 million ARB to cover operating costs for the first 30 months of the Operating Company (OpCo)
Voter Participation: 4.9k voters participated, below the category average for treasury of 7.1k voters
Voting Power casted: 217.2M ARB were cast, which is more than the category average of 169.8M ARB
Level of contentiousness: The proposal were highly contentious.
Top 20 voters: Out of 20 top voters (12 for, 7 against, and Gauntlet abstaining), delegates support the proposal, believing an OpCo will streamline operations, attract top talent, and transform the DAO into a more effective, people-driven organization.
3.Arbitrum D.A.O. (Domain Allocator Offerings) Grant Program - Season 3
Category: Grants
Overview: This proposal requests $7,477,800 million in ARB to fund season three of the Arbitrum Domain Allocator Offerings (D.A.O) Grant Program for a year for the following existing domains: Protocols, Education/Community and Events, Dev Tooling, and Gaming.
Voter Participation: 4.4k voters participated, below the category average for treasury of 11.1k voters
Voting Power casted: 184.2M ARB were cast, which is less than the category average of 163.8M ARB
Level of contentiousness: The proposal received nearly unanimous support, with minimal opposition.
Top 20 voters: The majority of top delegates voted in favor of the proposal. However, Entropy, Blockworks, and AAVE voted against, while seedgov, lobbyfi, and Reverie abstained.
Offchain Proposals
1.Arbitrum Growth Circles Event Proposal
Category: Grants
Overview: This proposal requests $67,200 to establish the Arbitrum Growth Circle, a three-month series seeking to support the Arbitrum ecosystem through hosted events focused on "protocols, developers, and ecosystem participants.
Voter Participation: 4.4k voters participated, below the category average for Grants of 12.7k voters
Voting Power casted: 156.1M ARB were cast, which is more than the category average of 146.5M ARB
Level of contentiousness: The proposal was almost unanimously rejected, only minimal support.
Top 20 voters: Most of the top 20 voters opposed the proposal. Only Event Horizon voted for it, while Lobbyfi and gfxlab abstained.They voted against it because they felt the proposal was a bit premature and could use a clearer budget, stronger KPIs, and more detailed support for builders after deployment.
2.Arbitrum Audit Program
Category: Grants
Overview: This proposal requests 30 million ARB to implement a program designed to "allocate funds to projects that require financial assistance to pay for an audit.
Voter Participation: 3.4k voters participated, below the category average for Grants of 12.7k voters
Voting Power casted: 144.7M ARB were cast, which is less than the category average of 146.5M ARB
Level of contentiousness: The proposal received nearly unanimous support, with minimal opposition; however, a significant number of delegates abstained from voting.
Top 20 voters: Most of the top 20 voters supported the proposal, while some abstained because they see promise in the idea but need clearer details on the budget, execution, and outcomes before fully committing.
3.Request to Increase the Stylus Sprint Committee’s Budget
Category: Grants
Overview: This proposal requests an additional 4 million ARB to extend the Stylus Sprint Committee’s budget to fund additional projects that “were not initially accepted into the Sprint.”
Voter Participation: 4.1k voters participated, below the category average for Grants of 12.7k voters
Voting Power casted: 163.1M ARB were cast, which is more than the category average of 146.5M ARB
Level of contentiousness: The proposal received nearly unanimous support, with minimal opposition.
Top 20 voters: Most of the top 20 voters supported the proposal, only GFX and AAVE voted against, because the program is already well-funded with 5,000,000 ARB, and Stylus relies on subsidies to drive adoption rather than genuinely reducing developer effort.
4.[CONSTITUTIONAL] AIP: ArbOS Version 40 Callisto
Category: Protocol Upgrades
Overview: Arbitrum proposed ArbOS 40 “Callisto” upgrade adds support for key Ethereum Pectra changes (EIP-7702, EIP-2537, and EIP-2935) and fixes a Stylus caching issue, while omitting some consensus-layer updates.
Voter Participation: 3.3k voters participated, below the category average for Protocol Upgrades of 15.5k voters
Voting Power casted: 144M ARB were cast, which is a bit less than the category average of 144.9M ARB
Level of contentiousness: The proposal received nearly unanimous support, with minimal opposition.
Top 20 voters: Most of the top delegates voted for the proposal, with only Lobbyfi voting abstain.
5.Approve the Nova Fee Sweep Action
Category: Protocol Updates
Overview: This proposal aims to transfer 1,885 ETH in historical Nova transaction fees from the L1TimelockAlias to the ArbitrumDAO Treasury using the updated fee collection system introduced in the Nova Fee Router Proposal.
Voter Participation: 3.6k voters participated,matching the category average for Protocol Updates.
Voting Power: 168.6M ARB were cast, also in line with the average.
Level of contentiousness: The proposal received unanimous support, with almost no opposition.
Top 20 voters: All of the top delegates voted for the proposal.
Implications for ArbitrumDAO Proposal Outcome:
In February 2025, Arbitrum’s proposals saw low voter participation with most falling below category averages. Key initiatives like STEP 2.0, the D.A.O. Grant Program Season 3, the Audit Program, ArbOS Callisto, and the Nova Fee Sweep Action were approved with nearly unanimous support, reflecting strong confidence in strengthening treasury stability and protocol upgrades. In contrast, the contentious OpCo proposal and the largely rejected Growth Circles Event Proposal revealed concerns over operational restructuring and premature planning, highlighting the need for increased voter engagement and enhanced transparency to bolster community trust and foster more inclusive decision-making within the DAO.
D) Shift in Voting Power Distribution
Votable Supply Changes: In February 2025, the votable supply of ARB tokens decreased from 330.608 million from January to 323.271 million in Febuary
Voting Power Distribution: In February 2025, the voting power distribution changed slightly. The Top 1–10 voters lost 5.7% of their power, reducing their share to 39.6%, while the Top 11–50 voters increased by 1.0% to reach 48.7% of the total. The Top 51–200 group fell by 1.4% to 9.1%, whereas the Top 201–500 and Top 501–1000 groups gained 2.2% and 3.1%, holding 1.5% and 1.1% respectively. These changes indicate a small shift in influence, though the largest groups continue to dominate the overall governance.
Top 1-10 Voter:
January 2025 Voting Power: 131 million ARB tokens.
February 2025 Voting Power: 123.5 million ARB tokens.
Change in Voting Power: A decrease of 7.5 million ARB tokens (-5.7%)
Share of Total Voting Power( February 2025): 39.6% showing a substantial portion of the total voting power.
Top 11-50 Voter:
January 2025 Voting Power: 150.4 million ARB tokens.
February 2025 Voting Power: 151.8 million ARB tokens.
Change in Voting Power: An increase of 1.4 million ARB tokens (+0.93%)
Share of Total Voting Power( February 2025): 48.7% showing a substantial portion of the total voting power.
Top 51-200 Voter:
January 2025 Voting Power: 28.9 million ARB tokens.
February 2025 Voting Power: 28.5 million ARB tokens.
Change in Voting Power: A decrease of 0.4 million ARB tokens (-1.4%)
Share of Total Voting Power( February 2025): 9.1% showing a substantial portion of the total voting power.
Top 201-500 Voter:
January 2025 Voting Power: 4.6 million ARB tokens.
February 2025 Voting Power: 4.7 million ARB tokens.
Change in Voting Power: An increase of 0.1 million ARB tokens (+2.2%)
Share of Total Voting Power( February 2025): 1.5% showing a substantial portion of the total voting power.
Top 501-1000 Voter:
January 2025 Voting Power: 3.2 million ARB tokens.
February 2025 Voting Power: 3.3 million ARB tokens.
Change in Voting Power: An increase of 0.1 million ARB tokens (+3.1%)
Share of Total Voting Power( February 2025): 1.1% showing a substantial portion of the total voting power.
For a detailed breakdown and insights, you can view the full report here: Curia Arbitrum Governance Analytics Report #4: Feb 2025