Recap of March
- Stylus Sprint: A few teams are still wrapping up the compliance process, but for the most part the Stylus Sprint is underway and teams have begun completing the first of their milestones. Social media highlights have started being posted from the Arbitrum account and Entropy has created an X list of participants that delegates can follow to help promote the team’s posts. Entropy also posted the first monthly update on behalf of the committee.
- OpCo: The Application and Nomination period closed on March 24th, followed by a Candidate Eligibility Evaluation period led by the Arbitrum Foundation. Twelve applicants were approved to move forward. A Candidate Introductions Call was held on March 27th, immediately followed by the start of the Snapshot election, which will run until April 3rd.
- Arbitrum DAO 2025 Events Budget: The Arbitrum Foundation posted their ETH Denver 2025 overview, which highlights how the DAO’s funds were utilized and summarizes Arbitrum’s presence at the conference.
- Treasury Management v1.2: The TMC originally ran a ranked choice Snapshot vote, which saw Option #3 – Only Deploy Stable Strategy as the top selected choice. However, in order to make sure the DAO is fully aligned on the choice, they have split their recommendations for the ARB and stablecoin strategies into two separate votes. The GMC adjusted its initial recommendation to allocate the 7,500 ETH across Lido (5,000 ETH), Aave (4,200 wstETH), Fluid (2,500 ETH), and Camelot (800 wstETH). These strategies aim to generate low-risk yield on the DAO’s ETH while also stimulating Arbitrum’s DeFi ecosystem. The GMC recommendation was approved by the DAO after a Snapshot vote passed on March 27th. The TMC also posted its recommended process for requesting stablecoin withdrawals to cover service provider shortfalls.
- Watchdog Program: As mentioned in our February update, Entropy paused our work on the RFP for a specific Watchdog platform and transitioned to work in collaboration with JoJo and the Foundation to explore a larger unified Arbitrum grants portal. During March, Entropy spoke with several teams and professional development shops to scope out the idea and obtain quotes.
- Strategic Objective Setting (SOS): The 44-day Submission Period for the SOS framework opened on February 24th and continued through March. Contributors were invited to publish full objectives matrices using the Objectives and Key Results format, detailing 1- and 2-year strategic goals aligned with the DAO’s mission, vision, and purpose. The period remains open until April 9th, after which the community will enter the feedback phase. Entropy will be posting our submission to the forum next week.
- DeFi Renaissance Incentive Program (DRIP): As was communicated at the beginning of March, the DRIP has been complete for some time and involves a flexible, protocol-agnostic incentives program framework focused on bootstrapping key assets and activities on Arbitrum. The DRIP has been aligned with both the Foundation and Offchain Labs. That said, we have identified a few key initiatives that we believe make sense to communicate and move forward before the DRIP goes to the forum.
- STEP 2.0: After taking over for Devansh as program manager, Entropy announced the opening of the RFP process and has so far seen 13 new applications. Over the last month, the committee has been meeting regularly to discuss and evaluate both the new applications and those from STEP 1.0 that have made adjustments based on previous feedback.
- ARDC V2: Throughout March, the ARDC produced several major deliverables. DefiLlama & Castle Capital published an in-depth grants program analysis across ecosystems and reviewed Arbitrum’s DDA performance. Nethermind completed its sequencer revenue report, highlighting sustainability risks and emerging opportunities. OpenZeppelin finalized recommendations for improving the Security Council’s composition, authority, and election structure. New research efforts began on governance attack risks, vote buying pricing, and incentive program optimization. In addition to the bi-weekly delegate calls, the ARDC hosted an X space on April 3rd to share OpenZeppelin’s recommendations on the Security Council elections. Entropy will be taking a more involved role on the ARDC over the coming weeks.
- Arbitrum DAO Governance X Space: The purpose of this space was to educate and align the industry and community on governance within the Arbitrum DAO. We were pleased to have 900 participants join the discussion. A sincere thank you to all the speakers for sharing their valuable insights, including Krzysztof (L2Beat), Atomist (Castle Labs), A.J. (Offchain Labs), Pat (Arbitrum Foundation), and Sam & Ali (Entropy Advisors).
- The Data Team prioritized the following aspects in March:
- Arbitrum DAO Financials: Understanding the financial health of the Arbitrum DAO requires a clear and structured approach to revenue and expenses. Currently, there is no standardized framework to assess the DAO’s financials comprehensively, making it difficult to track its sustainability and spending efficiency. By consolidating on-chain data and treasury movements, this dashboard provides a transparent and systematic way to analyze the DAO’s revenue sources, cost structures, and overall financial trajectory. Additionally, the dashboard provides estimates on the runway and sustainability of treasury spending to assess long-term financial health.
- Arbitrum DAO Delegates (WIP): This dashboard provides a comprehensive analysis of Arbitrum DAO delegates based on their onchain activity, covering key metrics such as delegator count, voting power distribution, participation rates, voting patterns, and historical shifts among top delegates.
- Arbitrum Ecosystem Support:
Current Initiatives
- Stylus Sprint: With most teams beginning development work in March, we expect to see the first substantial updates and deliverables in April. Entropy looks forward to sharing this progress with the DAO.
- OpCo: The Snapshot election for the OAT is now live (March 27th - April 3rd), with three members to be selected by the DAO. Once elected, these members, alongside the Arbitrum Foundation, will appoint 2 additional members (subject to DAO veto). The full five-member OAT will then begin overseeing OpCo’s setup and operations.
- Arbitrum DAO 2025 Events Budget: Entropy is still considering modifications to the program to help reduce the influx of event proposals that, in our opinion, fall outside of the originally envisioned scope. However, similar to the DRIP, we have identified a few key initiatives that we believe make sense to communicate and initiate first.
- Delegate Code of Conduct + Formalizing the DAO’s Operations: Similarly to March, Entropy is still working on its own analysis of the impact of Shutter voting on elections. With the trial period now in its last 2 months, our team is also beginning to consider potential improvements/changes.
- Treasury Management v1.2: Following the passing of the GMC’s recommendation, the committee is now coordinating with the Foundation and selected protocols to begin the deployment of funds. Given that Lido requires bridging the ETH to mainnet and then back to Arbitrum One, we estimate that the entire deployment process will take 3-4 weeks at minimum to account for test transactions and bridging times. However, the Fluid strategy could be deployed much quicker, as it does not rely on wstETH. While the TMC’s new Snapshot votes are in their final hours, it is looking like the stablecoin strategy will be approved, while the ARB strategy will not be deployed for now. This means that 15M ARB will be converted to stablecoins and managed by Karpatkey, Avantgarde & Myso, and Gauntlet (33/33/33 split). The 10M ARB dedicated to ARB-only onchain strategies will remain with the Arbitrum Foundation until an additional RFP is conducted with an acceptable number of applicants and strategies of high quality being submitted.
- Watchdog Program: In order to move the Watchdog program forward and not have it further delayed by the exploration and development of an Arbitrum grants portal, Entropy is considering various free ad hoc options to serve as a temporary solution.
- Strategic Objective Setting (SOS): The 44-day Submission Period runs until April 9th. Contributors are submitting OKR-based objectives aligned with the DAO’s mission. A 21-day feedback phase will follow.
- DeFi Renaissance Incentive Program (DRIP): While we had hoped to post the DRIP in March, we are confident that the proposal will be posted in the next few weeks.
- STEP 2.0: The STEP committee has been meeting regularly to discuss applications and how to allocate the funds available for STEP 2.0. The committee is on track for recommendations in the forum by April 20th.
- ARDC V2: Delegates can stay up to date with the ARDC’s work through the public notion dashboard. Some of the expected work for April includes analysis on governance attack risks, incentive program analysis, and vote buying research.
- Data: In addition to finalizing the Arbitrum DAO Delegates dashboard, which will be posted in the coming days, the data team is now focused on analyzing the MEV landscape on Arbitrum One and providing insights to support the upcoming launch of Timeboost.
Goals for April
With the impending OAT election results and SOS submissions ending next week, we expect April to be a very important and busy month for the DAO. Our own SOS submission in collaboration with relevant parties will be posted in the coming days. In general, Entropy’s main priorities will continue to revolve around supporting the initiatives that require active management (Stylus Sprint, OpCo, SOS, Treasury Management, STEP 2.0, and the ARDC). Regarding the Watchdog program, Entropy aims to have what it views as a temporary solution ready to present to the DAO in April. Additionally, we are deeply researching various strategies that could fund a perpetual incentives program for Arbitrum-Aligned builders, as numerous Arbitrum builders have expressed discontent with the lack of support coming from the DAO. Lastly, after launching the Arbitrum DAO Delegates dashboard, the data team will shift focus to MEV analysis on Arbitrum One, providing insights for the Timeboost launch, and examining the impact of shielded voting on voter behavior and participation.
Requests from the DAO
Please continue to reach out and pass along requests to Entropy Advisors. Our team is always open to input from DAO members on which problems we should dedicate our efforts towards.
