ENS token holders have ratified the "Next Era of ENS DAO" proposal and executed it onchain, establishing the ENS Foundation as an operational organization complete with a paid executive director, staff, and a five-member board, according to an August 11 blog post from ENS Labs.

The move gives the Ethereum Name Service — one of the most widely adopted blockchain naming protocols, mapping human-readable names like "name.eth" to wallet addresses and other onchain identifiers — its first legal entity capable of operating in contexts where a decentralized autonomous organization cannot. The Foundation will handle day-to-day operations, while token holders retain control over the protocol itself.

Why a DAO Could Not Handle the Paperwork

As ENS Labs explained, a DAO lacks the legal standing to sign standards agreements, hire full-time employees, litigate against trademark infringers operating phishing clones, or respond to legal processes.

Prior to the Foundation's launch, much of this representative work went unaddressed. ENS Labs absorbed a portion of it, though the team acknowledged it was not well-suited to those responsibilities given its primary focus on engineering.

With the Foundation now operational, ENS Labs says it can redirect its full attention to development, including the upcoming ENSv2 upgrade.

The Foundation assumes the offchain responsibilities. It is now positioned to participate in discussions at ICANN, IETF, and W3C, and to pursue recognition of the .ens top-level domain. As a formal legal entity, it will also engage with regulators, registrars, standards bodies, and courts. Additionally, it is tasked with consolidating ENS trademarks and brand assets to take action against impersonators.

The structure mirrors a broader pattern among web3 projects that have created dedicated legal entities — such as the Uniswap Foundation and the Arbitrum Foundation — to handle real-world obligations while preserving onchain governance for token holders.

Treasury and Governance Safeguards

The ENS DAO treasury holds 54.6% of the total token supply and will remain under the control of token holders.

The Endowment, which is funded by .eth registration revenue, retains its current asset allocation. However, its transactions are now subject to a nine-day timelock. During that window, the ENS Security Council can block any transaction that falls outside the Foundation's mandate.

ENS Labs emphasized that the ENS Foundation and ENS Labs are legally distinct entities. The Foundation does not own ENS Labs, and ENS Labs holds no governance rights over the Foundation, the Endowment, or the protocol. The only formal connection is that ENS Labs' founder occupies a founder seat on the Foundation's five-person board, though that seat carries no involvement in decisions regarding Lab funding.

Inaugural Board Composition

The Foundation's first board includes:

• Alexander Urbelis — a cybersecurity lawyer who served as general counsel and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at ENS Labs and previously held the CISO role at the NFL. He assumes the executive director position.
• Nick Johnson — ENS founder and ENS Labs CEO, holding the Founder seat.
• Kartik Talwar — affiliated with A.Capital Ventures and ETHGlobal.
• Brett Sun — cofounder of Prelude.
• Anthony Leutenegger — CEO of Aragon.

The three independent directors will serve two-year terms, which can be renewed by token holders.

Governance Context

The announcement arrives amid a year of governance activity within the ENS ecosystem. In June, a temperature check proposal was published aimed at restructuring operations around the DAO and the Foundation.

Johnson, who holds an estimated 3.26 million ENS tokens, has drawn attention due to his ability to influence vote outcomes given the scale of his holdings. He reportedly drove approximately 80% of votes cast against a Security Council renewal in late June. A successor eight-member council was subsequently approved with a stricter 5-of-8 multisig requirement for a two-year term.

ENS is currently trading around $4.12, down over 1.9% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data. The token remains more than 95% below its all-time high of $85.69 reached in November 2021.