Jack Paul 
Gnosis Community Votes to Remove Treasury Partner
Gnosis DAO, the organization behind projects like Safe, CoW Swap, and Gnosis Chain, has made a decisive move by voting to terminate its relationship with treasury management firm KPK. The proposal passed with overwhelming support—88% of voters approved the change. This decision comes after what the community described as extensive discussions about KPK’s performance, costs, and overall alignment with the DAO’s objectives.
Looking at the numbers, this wasn’t a small decision. The Gnosis treasury holds over $175 million in assets according to DeFiLlama data. That’s a substantial amount to manage, and apparently the community felt the current arrangement wasn’t working out. KPK, which originally started as part of Gnosis before spinning off into its own entity last year, had been trying to address concerns. They recently announced plans to cut costs from $6.3 million in 2024 to $2.2 million for 2025, but it seems this effort came too late to change minds.
Community Concerns and Performance Issues
When you dig into the forum discussions, you can see why the community reached this point. People were pointing to what they called “highly contentious” fee structures—1% of assets under management plus 20% of generated yield. That’s not exactly pocket change when you’re dealing with nine-figure sums.
Performance metrics also came under scrutiny. Some users noted that KPK’s management hadn’t kept pace with benchmark assets like sUSDS from Sky (formerly Maker) and Lido’s wstETH. There were also complaints about liquidity management, with around $8 million reportedly sitting in positions that were “out of range”—basically not earning anything.
Then there was that incident with the EURe/sDAI liquidity pool on Balancer back in June. The pool, which served as the main liquidity source for Gnosis Pay, had an oracle that only updated every three hours and didn’t work on weekends. Someone estimated that this configuration led to about $700,000 in losses from arbitrage opportunities. KPK did apologize and promised refunds, but the damage to their reputation was already done.
Broader Trend in DeFi Governance
This situation at Gnosis feels like part of a larger pattern developing in decentralized finance. DAOs are starting to push back against service providers who they feel might be collecting substantial fees without delivering corresponding value. It’s interesting to watch this evolution—from the early days where decentralization meant outsourcing everything, to now where communities are becoming more selective about who they trust with their treasuries.
We’ve seen similar tensions elsewhere. Remember when Gauntlet left Aave for competitor Morpho? Or the ongoing debates about Uniswap’s fee structure changes? There’s definitely a shift happening where DAOs are becoming more business-minded about their operations.
One observer from Sandbox Tree Capital called Gnosis’s decision “business sense driven,” which I think captures the sentiment well. It’s not about being anti-decentralization—it’s about being smart with community funds.
Looking Forward
KPK did acknowledge some shortcomings in their response, particularly around communication and reporting cycles. They mentioned that the scope of their engagement had ballooned beyond what was originally defined, which is a common challenge in these arrangements. But as one community member pointed out, it’s not just about communication—it’s fundamentally about performance.
What strikes me about this situation is how it reflects the maturing of DAO governance. Communities are becoming more sophisticated in how they evaluate service providers, and they’re willing to make tough decisions when things aren’t working. The 88% approval rate suggests this wasn’t a controversial move within the Gnosis community—people had clearly been thinking about this for a while.
As DeFi continues to evolve, we’ll probably see more of these course corrections. DAOs are learning that decentralization doesn’t mean you can’t hold service providers accountable. If anything, it means the community has the final say—and they’re not afraid to use it when necessary.