About GnosisDAO
GnosisDAO is the on-chain governance layer at the centre of the Gnosis ecosystem. It is the mechanism through which GNO holders allocate the treasury and set high-level priorities through the Gnosis Improvement Proposal (GIP) process. It funds the building of decentralised infrastructure for Ethereum; it does not build or operate that infrastructure itself.
That distinction matters. GnosisDAO is not an operating company. It does not manage the products built within the ecosystem, and it does not speak for the independent organisations that have spun out of it. Day-to-day work is delegated to service providers under mandates the DAO approves. Strategy is shaped collaboratively: the community, founders, and operating entities such as Gnosis Ltd propose direction, and GnosisDAO ratifies, refines, or rejects it through GIPs.
Where it came from
Gnosis was founded in 2015 to build prediction markets, with the aim of giving the world better access to accurate information. Building that platform surfaced a deeper need: the infrastructure to support it did not yet exist. Gnosis Safe, now simply Safe, was born of that necessity.
In late 2020, Gnosis announced plans to decentralise fully into a DAO. In 2021, the xDai and GnosisDAO communities voted to combine, creating Gnosis Chain: a credibly neutral, EVM-compatible network open to everyone. Today Gnosis Chain runs on five-second block times, near-zero fees, and more than 144,000 active validators.
What it stewards today
The GnosisDAO treasury holds substantial ETH and GNO reserves. GNO supply is governed toward a target of 3,000,000 tokens set under GIP-35; GIP-116 authorised the burn of 3.15M GNO from the vesting contract in line with that target. Since 2021, base fees on Gnosis Chain have burned GNO through EIP-1559, a protocol fee sink that reduces circulating supply over time rather than a distribution to holders.
As of July 2026 the ecosystem GnosisDAO funds and steers now spans:
- In-house products, built and maintained through Gnosis Ltd: Gnosis Chain and the Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ), Gnosis App, Circles, and Gnosis Pay
- Spinouts that originated within Gnosis and now operate independently, aligned through retained token holdings: Safe (spun out via GIP-29), CoW Protocol (GIP-13), KPK (GIP-92), and Gnosis Guild.
- Gnosis VC, the ecosystem's investment arm, and Gnosis VPN, a decentralised VPN on the HOPR mixnet.
Treasury management sits with NOCA, appointed under GIP-148 in February 2026, succeeding KPK, which had held the mandate since 2021.
The correct framing
GnosisDAO is the capital allocator and strategic steward of the Gnosis ecosystem. It funds work, signals priorities, and holds teams accountable through reporting and renewal. It does not run products day to day, and it does not govern Gnosis Chain at the protocol level: hard forks, client software, and validator behaviour sit with the validator set, not with GIPs.
GNO is best understood as a governance token. It grants a voice in how the ecosystem evolves, not equity in any entity, not a claim on treasury assets, and not a right to economic returns.