Why did the celebrity Web3 project Across Protocol choose to abandon the DAO?

What Across Protocol’s Going Private Proposal Really Means for Its Token Holders and DAO

By Jacquelyn Melinek

Translated by Ken, ChainCatcher

Today, as many traditional companies explore tokenization, Across Protocol is proposing a different path for its token holders: to buy out their tokens and become a private company or exchange them for equity.

@AcrossProtocol co-founder @hal2001 Lambur stated on @TokenRelations’ @_TalkingTokens podcast, “The protocol is seeking privatization because its DAO structure is hindering its growth.”

“I’ve always been a token maximalist,” Lambur said. “We launched the Across token early on when the market cap was very low and conducted extensive airdrops, mainly because we wanted to build openly and create value for our community and users. But I think the macro environment has changed.”

Across Protocol connects multiple major networks (including @Ethereum and @Solana), allowing users to bridge or swap tokens across chains. So far, it has processed over $35 billion in transactions.

However, as institutional and enterprise demand grows, its structure has proven to be a bottleneck. Lambur believes that “adopting a more traditional structure would allow it to develop better.”

As far as we know, Across’s proposal to privatize itself is a rare move, but it comes at a time when the industry is beginning to recognize that DAOs are a difficult organizational structure to operate.

In August 2025, when @UniswapFND proposed creating a legal entity called DUNI, the protocol stated that a formal structure would bring more “capabilities and greater autonomy.”

Earlier this week, @Aave founder @StaniKulechov wrote about the friction involved in operating a DAO. “As we’ve been running it, DAOs are extremely difficult, and that difficulty is different from building complex things. The challenge is that you’re fighting your own organizational structure every day.”

For Across, Risk Labs is “currently responsible for signing contracts” and building the protocol through a foundation and legal entity, but Lambur said the DAO is separate from these.

The protocol currently operates under a “classic token structure,” meaning you hold an on-chain protocol and a loosely affiliated legal entity. However, Lambur states they are two separate structures. “That’s one of the reasons people criticize the DAO model, and essentially, we’re trying to unify these two,” he added.

Before announcing the proposal on Wednesday, Across had been considering this move for several months. “It’s about this: you look at the macro environment, see how undervalued these tokens are, and then face the friction involved in trying to operate in a more traditional way.”

The proposal offers token holders two options: to exchange their ACX tokens for equity in AcrossCo., or to redeem them at an average market price over one month in USDC. Users holding large amounts of tokens can directly convert them into shares, while those with smaller holdings can do so through a special purpose entity with no fees.

Lambur acknowledged that one of the biggest downsides of this proposal is the limited number of token holders who can transfer their holdings into potential S-corp stock. “This is based on U.S. securities law, and we’ve designed it to be as inclusive as possible within human constraints.”

“A U.S. C-corp cannot have 5,000 entries on its capital structure,” he pointed out, so some consolidation is necessary. Nonetheless, he remains optimistic that it can work.

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