We are excited to publish the ArbitrumDAO Governance Analytics Report, covering key governance metrics and insights for March 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: March 2025 saw an overall increase in participation. Offchain participation rose significantly by 7.84%, while onchain participation experienced a slight increase of 1.32%.
Proposal Outcomes:
Six proposals were voted on: five approved, one rejected (Arbitrum Onboarding V2).
Voting Participation: All proposals experienced below-average participation compared to their category norms.
Delegate Spotlight: aretaGov.eth saw a 19.04% increase in voting power, rising from 5.0M to 5.96M ARB
Key Takeaway: March 2025 participation rebounded after ETHDenver. Extending the voting period or postponing the vote until after the event could allow for greater participation and ensure all delegates have the opportunity to engage fully.
A) Voting Participation Trend
Participation Rate: Average voting power cast per proposal / votable supply
In March 2025, ArbitrumDAO experienced an increase in governance participation across both onchain and offchain platforms.This section highlights key trends in participation metrics, unique voter activity, and voting power dynamics, along with potential factors contributing to these shifts.
Onchain: Participation increased by 1.32 percentage points, rising from 61.04% in February to 62.36% in March.
Offchain: A notable increase in participation was observed, jumping from 47.86% in February to 55.7% in March.
Unique Voters: The number of voter who vote within the month
Onchain: Unique voters remained relatively stable in March, with a slight increase of 54 compared to February.
Offchain: Unique voters decreased from 5,908 in February to 4,743 in March , the lowest figure recorded so far this year, compared to both January and February.
Voting Power: Average voting power of proposal participation
Onchain: Average voting power increased slightly by 1.7%, rising from 198.6M in February to 202M in March.
Offchain: Average voting power also rose by 16.1%, from 155.3M in February to 180.3M in March , marking the highest offchain voting power observed in 2025 so far.
New Voter: New voter who cast first vote in March
In March, there were 401 new onchain voters and 122 offchain voters. Onchain new voter continued its downward trend, decreasing from 548 new voters in February to 401 in March. In contrast, offchain new voter saw a slight increase, rising from 103 voters in February to 122 in March.
Potential Contributing Factors
Participation in March 2025 rebounded as many active ArbitrumDAO delegates returned from ETHDenver, and resumed their regular governance activities. The event, which likely contributed to the temporary decline in February, had minimal lasting impact. In addition, voting issues related to Safe Wallet access, caused by the Bybit hack and a temporary front-end outage on the Arbitrum Network, appear to have been resolved, enabling previously affected delegates to vote again. These factors might have contributed to the increase in both onchain and offchain participation observed in March.
B) Voter Dynamic
Existing Voters
An examination of the changes in voting power among existing voters reveals key shifts across 30 delegates.
Increases: Several delegates experienced noticeable gains in voting power, contributing to a net increase in governance influence. Notable examples include:
aretagov.eth: aretaGov.eth saw a 19.04% increase in voting power, rising from 5.0M to 5.96M ARB, placing them firmly within the top 20 delegates.
aranadigital-arb.eth: This delegate experienced a 20.22% increase, climbing from 4.78M to 5.75M ARB, one of the largest gains among the top addresses.
wintermutegovernance.eth: Wintermute increased their voting power by 1.1M ARB, a +8.96% change, pushing their total to 13.57M ARB. This makes them one of the most influential voting entities this month and signals continued strong participation from institutional delegates.
gfxlabs.eth: gfxlabs.eth increased their voting power by 9.9%, gaining nearly 300K ARB, which may strengthen their position in ongoing governance debates.
Decreases: Voting power reductions were also observed, with several delegates experiencing notable declines:
delegate.l2beat.eth: One of the largest and most influential delegates saw a significant drop of 2.3M ARB (-12.67%), reducing their power from 18.1M to 15.8M ARB. Despite the decline, they remain a top-tier delegate.
gauntletgov.eth: Gauntlet experienced a decline of 324,713 ARB (-10.14%), lowering their voting power from 3.20M to 2.88M ARB.
yoav.eth: This delegate’s voting power declined by 6.5%, down from 5.56M to 5.19M ARB.
ultra-gov.eth: 12.28% drop in voting power, decreasing from 1.05M to 925K ARB, which could reduce their influence if the trend continues.
Several addresses experienced full divestment, with six voters dropping to 0 voting power, suggesting either complete disengagement or reallocation of ARB holdings outside of governance.
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 March 2025 slightly decreased to 86, down from 91 in February 2025. This small drop suggests a continuing trend of reduced ongoing participation from previously engaged delegates.
Inactive (delegates who maintain less than 65% voting participation either onchain or offchain within the past 90 days):
The number of inactive delegates slightly decreased to 122, compared to 123 in February 2025. This marginal change likely does not reflect a transition to active status, but rather a shift in ranking due to other delegates, such as ghosts, surpassing them in voting power without actual engagement.
Ghost Delegates (delegates who, despite receiving delegation, have not exercised their voting power):
The number of ghost delegates, those who have never voted, increased to 792 in March, up from 786 in February 2025. This marks the highest ghost delegate count observed in the first quarter of 2025.
Implications of Changes in Delegate Status: In March 2025, active delegates slightly decreased from 91 to 86, signaling a small drop in participation among previously engaged delegates. Inactive delegates remained nearly unchanged, decreasing by just one (from 123 to 122), likely due to shifts in relative ranking rather than improved engagement. Ghost delegates increased from 786 to 792, reaching the highest level in Q1 2025 and highlighting growing disengagement. Overall, these changes show a slight decline in delegate activity and suggest that fewer delegates are taking part in governance compared to the previous month.
C) Proposal Outcome
This section provides an analysis of the outcomes and levels of contentiousness of proposals within ArbitrumDAO’s governance during March 2025, with particular attention to the voting behaviors of the top 20 voters by voting power. A total of 6 proposals were reviewed during this period, comprising of two in grants, two in treasury, one in operation and two in protocol upgrades.
Onchain Proposals
1.[CONSTITUTIONAL] - Adopt Timeboost + Nova Fee Sweep
Category: Protocol Upgrades
Overview: This AIP proposes to combine two separate actions into a single on-chain vote for the ArbitrumDAO to consider: the adoption of Timeboost and a Nova Fee Sweep action. Timeboost introduces a new transaction ordering policy for Arbitrum One and Nova. The Nova Fee Sweep action will forward historical transaction fees to the ArbitrumDAO Treasury, a task leftover from the Nova Fee Router Proposal.
Voter Participation: 5,300 voters participated, below the category average for Protocol Upgrades of 10,100 voters
Voting Power casted: 243.9M ARB tokens were cast, which is more than the category average of 174.7M ARB.
Level of contentiousness: The proposal saw nearly unanimous support with minimal opposition.
Top 20 voters: The majority of top delegates voted in favor, except Camelot, who abstained.
2.[NON-CONSTITUTIONAL] Arbitrum Onboarding V2: A Governance Bootcamp
Category: Grants
Overview: This proposal requests $178,138 in ARB to fund the Onboarding Program (V2) for six months, run by the Onboarding Working Group. Following the three-month Pilot Program
Voter Participation: 5,200 voters participated, below the category average for Protocol Upgrades of 9,900 voters
Voting Power casted: 193.8M ARB tokens were cast, which is more than the category average of 166.1M ARB.
Level of contentiousness: The proposal was largely rejected, with some choosing to abstain and few expressing support.
Top 20 voters: The majority of top delegates voted against the proposal, while top delegates like Gauntlet and Frisson from LobbyFi abstained, and Event Horizon, Areta, and CoinflipCanada voted in favor. Most opposing delegates cited the proposal’s premature timing, lack of clear contributor roles, high cost with low ROI, and the risk of talent drifting to other DAOs, all while core governance issues remain unaddressed.
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: 3,900 voters participated, below the category average for Protocol Upgrades of 9,900 voters
Voting Power casted: 168.4M ARB tokens were cast, which is more than the category average of 166.1M ARB.
Level of contentiousness: The proposal saw nearly unanimous support with minimal opposition.
Top 20 voters: The majority of top delegates supported the proposal, with only GFX Labs voting against and LobbyFi abstaining.
Offchain Proposals
Category: Treasury Overview: This proposal outlines voting options regarding the Stablecoin Allocation and ARB Allocation outlined in the Treasury Management v1.2 proposal. This proposal states that if the Stablecoin Strategy Allocation vote is approved, 15 million ARB will be converted into stablecoins and managed via a “33/33/33 split among Karpatkey, Avantgarde & Myso, and Gauntlet.” Additionally, this proposal states that if the ARB Strategy Allocation vote is approved, 10 million ARB will be deployed into onchain strategies, "managed in a 50/50 split between Karpatkey and Avantgarde & Myso.
Voter Participation: 3,200 voters participated, below the category average for treasury of 18,300 voters
Voting Power casted: 172.5M ARB tokens were cast, which is more than the category average of 146.9M ARB.
Level of contentiousness: The proposal is quite contentious due to the debate between deploying only stable strategies and deploying both stable and ARB strategies.
Top 20 voters: A majority of top delegates voted in favor of deploying a stable strategy. However, Lobbyfi, Wintermute, Griff, and SEEDgov supported deploying both strategies. Meanwhile, L2BEAT, Bobrossi, and GFXLabs voted against deploying any strategy.
2.GMC’s Preferred Allocations (7,500 ETH)
Category: Treasury
Overview: This proposal outlines the Growth Management Committee’s (GMC) preferred allocation of 7,500 ETH from the Arbitrum DAO treasury. The GMC proposes distributing the funds across four protocols: Lido, Aave, Fluid, and Camelot. The allocation includes staking 5,000 ETH with Lido for wstETH, depositing 4,200 wstETH into Aave V3 on Arbitrum, lending 2,500 ETH on Fluid, and contributing 800 wstETH to Camelot as single-sided liquidity. A risk assessment conducted by LlamaRisk identifies various risks
Voter Participation: 3,100 voters participated, below the category average for treasury of 18,300 voters.
Voting Power casted: 186.7M ARB tokens were cast, which is more than the category average of 146.9M ARB.
Level of contentiousness: The proposal saw nearly unanimous support with minimal opposition.but very high amount of abstaining.
Top 20 voters: The majority of the top delegates voted to deploy the capital, while five abstained, including Wintermute, a GMC member, due to a conflict of interest. Two delegates, bobrossi.eth and Reverie, voted against, with bobrossi citing concerns over Lido’s centralization and stating they would reconsider if the Lido allocation were removed.
Category: Protocol Upgrades
Overview: This proposal requests Arbitrum DAO to register the “official USDS and sUSDS tokens and the Sky Custom Gateway contracts on the Router” to "allow users bridging USDS and sUSDS through the official Arbitrum Bridge UI.
Voter Participation: 3,300 voters participated, below the category average for Protocol Upgrades of 14,900 voters
Voting Power casted: 181.8M ARB tokens were cast, which is more than the category average of 146.7M ARB.
Level of contentiousness: The proposal saw nearly unanimous support with minimal opposition.
Top 20 voters: The majority of top delegates voted in favor, except LobbyFi, the top delegate, who abstained.
Implications for ArbitrumDAO Proposal Outcome:
- The outcomes of Arbitrum’s proposals in March showed most proposals passed with strong support, reflecting alignment among active voters. However, the rejection of the Arbitrum Onboarding V2 proposal stood out. Many voters raised concerns about unclear contributor roles, high costs compared to the expected outcomes, and unresolved governance issues. The debate around the TMC Recommendation also revealed differing opinions on how treasury funds should be managed. Overall, the results reflect both growing attention to funding proposals and the need for deeper discussion on strategic priorities within the DAO.
D) Shift in Voting Power Distribution
Votable Supply Changes: In March 2025, the votable supply of ARB tokens decreased from 323.2 million to 321.39 million from February 2025
Voting Power Distribution: In March 2025, the top 11–50 voters held 48.96% of the total voting power, maintaining the largest share among all groups. The top 1–10 voters followed closely, holding 40.05%, reflecting a slight increase in their influence compared to the previous month. Meanwhile, the top 51–200, 201–500, and 501–1000 voter groups held 8.67%, 1.36%, and 0.97% of the voting power respectively, highlighting a continuing decline in influence from smaller voters. This distribution underscores the need to foster broader participation
Top 1-10 Voter:
February 2025 Voting Power: 123.5 million ARB tokens
March 2025 Voting Power: 123.8 million ARB tokens
Change in Voting Power: An increase of 0.3 million ARB tokens (+0.24%)
Share of Total Voting Power (March 2025): 40.05%, showing substantial influence over governance
Top 11-50 Voter:
February 2025 Voting Power: 151.8 million ARB tokens
March 2025 Voting Power: 151.4 million ARB tokens
Change in Voting Power: A decrease of 0.4 million ARB tokens (-0.26%)
Share of Total Voting Power (March 2025): 48.96%, the largest share across all groups
Top 51-200 Voter:
February 2025 Voting Power: 28.4 million ARB tokens
March 2025 Voting Power: 26.8 million ARB tokens
Change in Voting Power: A decrease of 1.6 million ARB tokens (-5.63%)
Share of Total Voting Power (March 2025): 8.67%, showing moderate influence
Top 201-500 Voter:
February 2025 Voting Power: 4.3 million ARB tokens
March 2025 Voting Power: 4.2 million ARB tokens
Change in Voting Power: A decrease of 0.1 million ARB tokens (-2.33%)
Share of Total Voting Power (March 2025): 1.36%, a small but noticeable portion
Top 501-1000 Voter:
February 2025 Voting Power: 3.1 million ARB tokens.
March 2025 Voting Power: 3.0 million ARB tokens.
Change in Voting Power: An decrease of 0.1 million ARB tokens (-2.94%)
Share of Total Voting Power (March 2025): 0.97%, the smallest share among all groups
For a detailed breakdown and insights, you can view the full report here: Curia Arbitrum Governance Analytics Report #5: Mar 2025