API3 (API3) — Governance Rights Report

Vol. I, No. 1 Monday, August 31, 2026 API3 — Governance Rights Report

Verdict

API3

API3 — Governance Rights Report

Tier 2 S1 — Token-Governed Protocol Assessment as of 2026-10-01

GSA-1 near-miss GSA-2 near-miss GSA-3 fail GSA-4 fail GSA-5 near-miss GSA-6 fail GSA-7 fail GSA-8 fail

Why this rating: API3 DAO uses Aragon-based on-chain voting (Api3Voting.sol): two voting apps control two Aragon Agents, the primary commanding the larger treasury and able to update all DAO settings; execution scripts run on-chain if passed (no multisig gate). Staking in Api3Pool grants voting power; rewards are inflation-minted (mintReward), not protocol revenue. GSA-3 fail: staking rewards are new API3 tokens (inflation), not protocol revenue; OEV rewards are marketed to integrating dApps, not API3 stakers; no verified contract route from protocol revenue to holders; GSA-1 near-miss: primary Agent treasury is controlled by the voting app via contract (no multisig gate), but turnout is low (e.g. proposal 228, Jun 2025: 17.8% support, zero against) and claims managers can payOutClaim from the pool without a vote

GSA-3 fail: staking rewards are new API3 tokens (inflation), not protocol revenue; OEV rewards are marketed to integrating dApps, not API3 stakers; no verified contract route from protocol revenue to holders
GSA-1 near-miss: primary Agent treasury is controlled by the voting app via contract (no multisig gate), but turnout is low (e.g. proposal 228, Jun 2025: 17.8% support, zero against) and claims managers can payOutClaim from the pool without a vote
GSA-2 near-miss: stakers control the Agents and all DAO settings via on-chain vote and can re-delegate, but there is no dedicated recall mechanism for the core team/operators
GSA-3 upgrade candidate (2026-10-01 recheck, cell unchanged): on-chain-approved revenue-to-market-buys program executed 2026-09-04 — near-miss deferred pending observed buy execution

Where to Vote

Voting venue: on-chain: API3DAO ARCDao (verify venue — see flags)

Proposal History

No proposal history is available for API3 in the current scanner window.

Metrics

Curated metric — next quarterly update. On-chain revenue, treasury, and distribution-enforcement reads are not yet wired for this DAO's space in the Institute's state files; the quarterly re-assessment cycle will populate this block.

Structure & History

Structure: S1 — Token-Governed Protocol.

S1-S5 protocol business structure taxonomy, as-of 2026-08-27 (structure taxonomy date); scores as-of 2026-10-01 (first scored 2026-07-23; quarterly recheck #2, cycle 2026-08-31 -> 2026-10-01)

2026-10-01 recheck — what changed

GSA-3 upgrade candidate recorded, cell NOT moved: executed on-chain Aragon vote #260 (2026-09-04, 5,483,179 For / 0 Against, 32.7% of staked shares) plus the staking-target reduction — revenue-to-market-buys program channeling OEV revenue, Curator fees and ETH staking yield into recurring open-market API3 purchases; first protocol-revenue-to-token rail in the DAO scored history
Commit rule applied: near-miss to be committed at the 2027-01 recheck if >=1 month of observed buy execution is on record; promotion to pass requires a hardcoded distribution contract

First scored 2026-09-01; rechecked 2026-10-01.