Aragon Implements Countermeasures to Thwart Arca’s ‘51% Attack’

Aragon Association Abandons Plan to Give Voting Rights to ANT Holders After Attack

The Aragon Association, which manages the Aragon open-source framework for launching decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), has scrapped its plan to allow Aragon (ANT) token holders to have voting rights on the future direction of the organization. This decision came in response to a 51% attack on the recently launched Aragon DAO by the Risk Free Value (RFV) Raiders, who aimed to manipulate the use of ANT for financial gain. The Aragon Association exercised its fiduciary duty to protect its treasury and overall mission by repurposing the Aragon DAO as part of a new grants program.

The Aragon Association, a Switzerland-based organization, oversees the management of Aragon. According to Aragon, the RFV Raiders are linked to the recent attack and liquidation of Rook DAO, which took place in early April. The Aragon Association alleges that the RFV Raiders are activist investors from the asset management firm Arca Capital Management who refer to themselves as the “vultures of crypto.”

The Aragon treasury was created to support builders who develop decentralized governance infrastructure, and because of Swiss regulations, the fiduciary duty of the Aragon Association compelled it to secure the funds from those who seek access to them for their own financial gains. Aragon transferred an initial payment of $300,000 in USDC to the Aragon Grants DAO, and the funds currently held by the DAO will remain on-chain and be governed by wrapped ANT (wANT) holders.

Arca Capital Responds to Aragon’s Discord Ban

In an open letter penned on May 2, Arca Capital responded to a disagreement that had resulted in several stakeholders being barred from Aragon’s Discord. Arca claimed that it was necessary to allow token holders to find creative solutions to return value to the token while simultaneously allowing Aragon to continue building important DAO public goods. However, this could not begin until the treasury transfer is further along.

Price of ANT Stumbles

Aragon’s decision to repurpose its DAO comes just over a month after the team announced further collaboration with the popular Ethereum scaling organization, Polygon Labs. The price of Aragon’s native ANT token fell by over 4% following the announcement, going from $2.95 to $2.83, according to CoinGecko data. At the time of publication, the price of ANT is up by 2% in the last 24 hours.

Summary

• The Aragon Association has abandoned its plan to give Aragon (ANT) token holders voting rights over the future direction of the organization.
• The decision was made following a 51% attack on the Aragon DAO by the RFV Raiders, who aimed to manipulate the use of ANT for financial gain.
• The Aragon Association exercised its fiduciary duty to protect its treasury and overall mission by repurposing the Aragon DAO as part of a new grants program.
• Arca Capital Management responded to the disagreement that had resulted in stakeholders being barred from Aragon’s Discord.
• Aragon’s decision to repurpose its DAO came just over a month after the team announced further collaboration with Polygon Labs.