Greenfield Capital, an investor in Safe, says it has filed a supervisory complaint with Switzerland's foundation watchdog, seeking changes to the Safe Ecosystem Foundation's board after months of engagement failed to resolve its governance concerns.

Safe provides self-custody smart account infrastructure — wallet contracts secured by multiple signers that let individuals and organizations manage digital assets — widely used across DeFi, and the Safe Ecosystem Foundation is the Swiss-registered entity established to support the ecosystem.

In an open letter to the Safe community published Sunday, Greenfield founding partner Jascha Samadi said the complaint to Switzerland's Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) followed his firm's growing unease about the state of Safe since early 2025, citing its performance relative to the broader market and a lack of independent voices on the foundation's board.

The ESA is the federal body that supervises foundations in Switzerland, a domicile shared by many of crypto's best-known projects. Under Swiss law, a foundation has no shareholders or members and is directed solely by its board, which places board composition at the center of the dispute.

“But we have come to believe, after more than a year of research, dialogue and patience, that Safe will not reach its potential under its current governance,” Samadi said.

The governance dispute comes as Safe targets break-even and a doubling of revenue in 2026. In a February announcement, the project reported more than $10 million in project-wide annualized revenue at the end of 2025 and outlined a longer-term ambition to reach $100 million in annual recurring revenue by 2030.

Greenfield questions Safe's revenue growth

Greenfield pointed to $1.98 million in second-quarter revenue — equivalent to an annualized run rate of $8 million — as far below the $20 million expectation for 2026. The firm argued that Safe has been losing ground even as the broader crypto market grows.

Samadi said that between January 2024 and August 2026, total value held in Safe accounts fell from $66 billion to $30 billion, a decline of more than 50%, while total DeFi total value locked grew 40%, citing data from Dune and DefiLlama. Over the same period, total stablecoin supply expanded roughly 135%, while stablecoins held in Safes on Ethereum grew only 11%, and Safe's share of USDC in circulation fell from 12.8% to 2.5%.

“In the category that has grown the most and that self-custody infrastructure is best placed to serve, Safe has been losing ground for two and a half years,” Samadi said.

Samadi attributed many of the concerns to a shortage of independent board members with “experienced decision-making.” He also alleged conflicts of interest involving board member Stefan George's role at Gnosis and fellow board member Richard Meissner's ties to companies developing and operating Safe products. Both men are Safe co-founders, and Safe itself originated as a Gnosis product before spinning out as an independent project in 2022 — background Greenfield cites in arguing the board lacks independence from the project's commercial roots.

Greenfield said it spent months pressing the foundation to restructure its governance by replacing George and expanding the with independent, externally recruited members with expertise in finance, risk management and business strategy. The firm is now asking the Swiss watchdog to examine the foundation's governance and determine whether corrective measures are needed. How the ESA handles the complaint — and whether the foundation adjusts its board — will be watched closely as Safe pursues its 2026 revenue and break-even targets.

Related: Safe unveils new unit to build enterprise-grade crypto wallets

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