ConstitutionDAO to Shut Down, Nearly 50% of Funds Already Returned

Many who contributed small amounts of ETH will have little but a hefty gas bill to show for it.

AccessTimeIconNov 23, 2021 at 10:50 p.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 7:02 p.m. UTC
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The U.S. Constitution has persevered for 234 years. ConstitutionDAO’s shelf life is proving far shorter: just about one month.

The slapdash group of crypto investors that this month failed to buy a rare edition of the Constitution at Sotheby’s will close its Discord server in 14 days.

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  • “We have determined that building and maintaining an ongoing project is not something that we as a core team are able to support, given the technical and administrative requirements of doing it properly,” a statement on ConstitutionDAO’s website said. “Given this, we believe this project has run its course.”

    ConstitutionDAO is therefore shutting down, the post said, marking an end to the self-described “decentralized autonomous organization’s” quixotic experiment in fundraising. Refunds of the group’s $50 million war chest will continue in perpetuity; nearly 50% of funds have already been reclaimed.

    Despite failing to meet its stated goal – the purchase of the U.S. Constitution at auction – the project’s website administrated framed ConstitutionDAO as a “landmark” achievement that showcased the power “internet friends” can have when they band together on super-tight deadlines.

    Indeed, ConstitutionDAO drove unprecedented mainstream media interest in crypto-native governance concepts. And over 10% of wallets that donated to the project were first-timers, according to a dashboard on Dune Analytics. The median funding amount was 0.051 ETH.

    But that minuscule figure now poses a problem for the masses who aped in, many expecting a token that was never delivered. Now they have nothing but a hefty gas bill to show for it.

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    Danny Nelson

    Danny is CoinDesk's Managing Editor for Data & Tokens. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL.


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