We are excited to publish the ArbitrumDAO Governance Analytics Report, covering key governance metrics and insights for January 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 increased in January 2025, demonstrating improved engagement.
Proposal Outcomes: A total of nine proposals were voted on, with eight approved and only one rejected (“Proposal for Piloting Enhancements and Strengthening the Sustainability of ArbitrumHub in the Year Ahead”). Four of these proposals were for domain allocator elections.
Voting Participation: All proposals had below-average participation compared to their category.
Delegate Spotlight: LobbyFi is now the top delegate in ArbitrumDAO, holding 20.71M ARB in voting power.
Key Takeaway: January saw an improvement in participation; however, the number of voters per proposal remains below the category average.
A) Voting Participation Trend
Participation Rate: Average voting power cast per proposal / votable supply
In January 2025, ArbitrumDAO observed a slightly increase 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 grew slightly by 1.04 percentage points from December
Offchain: Participation slightly increased by 0.26 percentage points from December
Unique Voters: The number of voter who vote within the month
Onchain Voters:
Unique onchain voters decreased by 448, from 6236 in December 2024 to 5,788 in January 2025, reflecting weaker participation in onchain proposals.
Offchain Voters:
Unique offchain unique voters also decreased by 929, from 6,544 in December 2024 to 5,526 in January 2025, though still higher than September 2024 levels.
Voting Power: Average voting power of proposal participation
Onchain Voting Power:
Average voting power increased by 7.28%, from 196.4 million to 210.7 million.
Offchain Voting Power:
A small decrease was observed, with average voting power dropping by 1.66%, from 156.8 million to 154.2 million
New Voter: New voter who cast first vote in January
In January 2025, there were 625 new onchain voters , compared to just 170 new offchain voters . Onchain participation saw a slight drop from 626 new voters in December to 625 new voters in December. In contrast, offchain participation experienced a significant increase , rising from 92 new voters in December to 170 new voters in January.
Potential Contributing Factors
The slight increase in participation and voting power in January 2025 is likely due to active ArbitrumDAO delegates returning after the holiday break, which lasted from December 20th to January 6th. Since many voters were just getting back from their break, the difference compared to December is minimal. Overall, participation levels this month appear stable.
B) Voter Dynamic
Existing Voters
An examination of the changes in voting power among existing delegates reveals significant shifts among 37 delegates.
Increases: 8 delegates increased their voting power, accounting for an addition 20.6M of ARB tokens in total notable example includes:
- LobbyFi has seen a significant surge in ARB tokens, rising from 891,543.26 to 20,708,594.38 ARB, making them the top delegate with the highest voting power. This has raised concerns among many delegates, as they now hold 6.27% of the votable supply, potentially allowing them to influence proposals within ArbitrumDAO.
- gfxlabs.eth has gained substantial voting power, increasing from 2,450,248 to 2,734,995 ARB.
- castlecapital.eth has also seen an increase in voting power, rising from 50,999 to 122,962 ARB.
- Both 0x71A2D4D920Feece90E4bDDb562CEd4dDE1cb7fb2 and Juanrah.eth have increased their voting power, with the former rising from 25 to 51,024 ARB and the latter from 43.14 to 83,637 ARB. As a result, both now meet the minimum requirement to participate in DIP
Decreases: 29 delegates saw a decrease in voting power totaling a reduction of -7.9M 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): The number of active delegates in ArbitrumDAO decreased slightly in January 2025, dropping to 84 from 85 in the previous month, reflecting a reduction of 1 active delegate.
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 January 2025 to 125, down from 132 in December 2024.
Ghost Delegates (delegates who, despite receiving delegation, have not exercised their voting power): The number of ghost delegates, those who have never voted, increased from 783 in December 2024 to 791 in January 2025.
Implications of Changes in Delegate Status: The delegate status shifts in ArbitrumDAO in January 2025 show the slight decline in active delegates suggests minor disengagement, while fewer inactive delegates may reflect increased participation or a shift out of the top 1,000 delegates. The rise in ghost delegates signals growing unused voting power, risking governance inefficiencies. Strengthening incentives and addressing delegation reallocation will be key to maintaining balance.
C) Proposal Outcome
This section provides an analysis of the outcomes and levels of contentiousness of proposals within ArbitrumDAO’s governance during January 2025, with particular attention to the voting behaviors of the top 20 voters by voting power. A total of 9 proposals were reviewed during this period, comprising five in the governance category, two in grants, one in treasury, and one in protocol updates.
Onchain Proposals
1.Arbitrum Strategic Objective Setting (SOS) – Defining the DAO’s Interim Goals
Category: Protocol Updates
Overview: This AIP upgrades Arbitrum One and Nova to Arbitrum BoLD, enabling permissionless validation on One while keeping Nova permissioned. BoLD enhances security, prevents delay attacks, and improves censorship resistance. It also whitelists Infura as a Nova validator for better stability.
Voter Participation: 5,400 voters participated, which is below the governance category average of 10,600 voters.
Voting Power Cast: A total of 210.7M ARB was cast, which is lower than the category average of 167M ARB.
Level of Contentiousness: The proposal received nearly unanimous support, with minimal opposition.
Top 20 Voters: All of the top 20 voters supported this proposal.
Offchain 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: 3,900 voters participated, below the category average for treasury of 22,100 voters
Voting Power casted: 142.7M ARB were cast, which is more than the category average of 138.7M ARB
Level of contentiousness: The proposal saw nearly unanimous support with no opposition.
Top 20 voters: 19 of top 20 voted in favor only Entropy voted abstain
2.Arbitrum D.A.O. Season 3 Elections - New Protocols and Ideas
Category: Election
Overview: This proposal aims to elect a “New Protocols and Ideas” domain representative as part of the Arbitrum D.A.O.
Voter Participation: 3,300 voters participated, lower than the previous election of the same position of 48,000 voters
Voting Power Casted: 174.5M ARB were cast, which is higher than 105.323M ARB from previous election.
Level of contentiousness: The proposal were highly contentious between the candidates, at the end Castle Capital won by 0.01% over Saurabh, which make this election interestingly the closest election in ArbitrumDAO.
Top 20 Voters: most of the top 20 voted spilt their vote diversely but Olimpio and Lito.eth with the voting power of 12.7M ARB and 3.9M both voted 100% for Castle Capital
3.Arbitrum D.A.O. Season 3 Elections - Education, Community Growth, and Events
Category: Election
Overview: This proposal aims to elect an “Education, Community Growth, and Events” domain representative as part of the Arbitrum D.A.O. Grant Program decision among four domains.
Voter Participation: 3,300 voters participated, lower than the previous election of the same position of 49,000 voters
Voting Power Casted: 164.2M ARB were casted, which slightly higher than previous election of for this position of 163.3M ARB
Level of contentiousness: The election saw nearly unanimous support with minimal opposition for Seedlatam.
Top 20 Voters: Majority of top 20 voted Seedlatam, only some of the voters split their voting power to ArbitrumHub.io, which result Seedlatam to won the election by 75% over ArbitrumHub.io
4.Arbitrum D.A.O. Season 3 Elections - Dev Tooling on One and Stylus
Category: Election
Overview: This proposal aims to elect a “Dev Tooling on One and Stylus” domain representative as part of the Arbitrum D.A.O. Grant Program, selecting one candidate among four domains.
Voter Participation: 3,300 voters participated, which is significantly lower than the previous election for this position, where 49,000 voters took part.
Voting Power Cast: A total of 170.3M ARB was cast, which is higher than the 83.19M ARB in the previous election for this position.
Level of Contentiousness: The proposal was highly contentious between candidates. However, in the end, Jaundi won with a 25% lead over the second-place candidate, andreiv.
Top 20 Voters: The majority of the top 20 voters supported Jaundi. However, L2BEAT, the #1 delegate in Arbitrum with 18.2M in voting power, voted 100% for andreiv.
5.Arbitrum D.A.O. Season 3 Elections - Gaming
Category: Election
Overview: This proposal aims to elect a “Gaming” domain representative as part of the Arbitrum D.A.O. Grant Program, selecting one candidate among four domains.
Voter Participation: 3,300 voters participated, which is significantly lower than the 49,000 voters in the previous election for this position.
Voting Power Cast: A total of 164.1M ARB was cast, which is higher than the 89.6M ARB in the previous election for this position.
Level of Contentiousness: The proposal was highly contentious among candidates. However, in the end, Adam (Flook) won over Jeremy, Bob Rossi, and Idea2IDO Investing with 54.06% of the vote.
Top 20 Voters: The majority of the top 20 voters supported Flook, while some voted for Jeremy.
6.The Watchdog: Arbitrum DAO’s Grant Misuse Bounty Program
Category: Grants
Overview: This proposal seeks to create “The Watchdog,” a grant misuse bounty program designed to incentivize reporting misused DAO-allocated funds across all DAO-funded initiatives. It requests a 400,000 ARB budget to reward valid reports.
Voter Participation: 3,600 voters participated, which is below the grants category average of 13,500 voters.
Voting Power Cast: A total of 157.4M ARB was cast, which is higher than the category average of 145.7M ARB.
Level of Contentiousness: The proposal received nearly unanimous support, with minimal opposition.
Top 20 Voters: The majority of the top 20 voters supported this proposal. However, GFX Labs voted against it, arguing that the 400,000 ARB transfer is excessive given the likely low amount of recoverable misused funds.
7.Proposal for Piloting Enhancements and Strengthening the Sustainability of ArbitrumHub in the Year Ahead
Category: Grants
Overview: This proposal revises the ArbitrumHub Evolution initiative by emphasizing platform maintenance and information accuracy, reducing fragmentation, and adjusting role hours based on DAO feedback. It also defines target audiences and sets a revised annual budget of $230,400.
Voter Participation: 3,300 voters participated, which is below the grants category average of 13,500 voters.
Voting Power Cast: A total of 122.8M ARB was cast, which is lower than the category average of 145.7M ARB.
Level of Contentiousness: The proposal received nearly unanimous opposition, with minimal support.
Top 20 Voters: The majority of the top 20 voters opposed the proposal, citing its high budget, lack of DAO integration, focus on website development over content, and failure to collaborate with key stakeholders.
8.Arbitrum Strategic Objective Setting (SOS) – Defining the DAO’s Interim Goals
Category: Governance
Overview: This proposal establishes the Arbitrum Strategic Objective Setting (SOS), enabling DAO members to propose and vote on short-term (1-year) and mid-term (2-year) objectives, with annual reviews every 12 months.
Voter Participation: 3,600 voters participated, which is below the governance category average of 21,500 voters.
Voting Power Cast: A total of 138.7M ARB was cast, which is lower than the category average of 147.1M ARB.
Level of Contentiousness: The proposal received nearly unanimous support, with minimal opposition.
Top 20 Voters: All of the top 20 voters supported this proposal.
The outcomes of Arbitrum’s proposals in January 2025 revealed low voter participation, with most proposals falling below category averages. While key initiatives like SOS, STEP 2.0, and Arbitrum BoLD upgrades were approved with strong support, others like the ArbitrumHub Evolution proposal faced rejection due to concerns over budget and integration, reflecting evolving community priorities. These results highlight the need for increased voter engagement and enhanced transparency to strengthen community trust and ensure more inclusive decision-making within the DAO.
D) Shift in Voting Power Distribution
Votable Supply Changes: In January 2025, the votable supply of ARB tokens slightly increased from 326.64 million from December 2024 to 330.608 million in January
Voting Power Distribution: In January 2025, the Top 1-10 voters significantly increased their share of voting power by +9.35%, strengthening their influence within the governance structure. The Top 11-50 voters also saw a slight increase of +1.62%, reaching 47.30% of the total voting power. In contrast, smaller voter groups experienced declines: the Top 51-200 voters decreased by -1.03%, while the Top 201-500 and Top 501-1000 voters saw reductions of -2.17% and -3.03%, respectively. This shift highlights the growing concentration of voting power among the largest participants, emphasizing the need to encourage broader engagement to maintain a balanced governance system.
Top 1-10 Voter:
December 2024 Voting Power: 119.8 million ARB tokens.
January 2025 Voting Power: 131 million ARB tokens.
Change in Voting Power: An increase of 11.2 million ARB tokens (+9.35%)
Share of Total Voting Power( January 2025): 41.19% showing a substantial portion of the total voting power.
Top 11-50 Voter:
December 2024 Voting Power: 148 million ARB tokens.
January 2025 Voting Power: 150.4million ARB tokens.
Change in Voting Power: An increase of 2.4 million ARB tokens (+1.62%)
Share of Total Voting Power( January 2025): 47.30% holding a significant portion of the total voting power
Top 51-200 Voter:
December 2024 Voting Power: 29.2 million ARB tokens.
January 2025 Voting Power: 28.9 million ARB tokens.
Change in Voting Power: An increase of 0.3 million ARB tokens (-1.03%)
Share of Total Voting Power( January 2025): 9.09% indicating some influence within the governance framework.
Top 201-500 Voter:
December 2024 Voting Power: 4.6 million ARB tokens.
January 2025 Voting Power: 4.5 million ARB tokens.
Change in Voting Power: A decrease of 0.1 million ARB tokens (-2.17%)
Share of Total Voting Power( January 2025): 1.42% which is significant relative to their earlier position.
Top 501-1000 Voter:
December 2024 Voting Power: 3.3 million ARB tokens.
January 2025Voting Power: 3.2 million ARB tokens.
Change in Voting Power: A decrease of 0.1 million ARB tokens (-3.03%)
Share of Total Voting Power( January 2025): 1.01% the smallest group.
For a detailed breakdown and insights, you can view the full report here: Curia Arbitrum Governance Analytics Report #3: Jan 2025