{"investigation":{"slug":"peopledao","entity_name":"PeopleDAO","trust_score":52,"severity_base":null,"score_modifier":6,"confidence":0.65,"status":"published","content_type":"investigation","summary":"PeopleDAO is a community-governed metaDAO that emerged in December 2021 from the dissolution of ConstitutionDAO, adopting the $PEOPLE ERC-20 token as its governance mechanism. The organization aims to incubate subDAOs and projects advancing Web3 and social good. In March 2023, PeopleDAO suffered a social engineering incident in which an unknown third party exploited an accidentally shared editable payment spreadsheet to steal approximately 76.5 ETH (~$120,000) from the DAO treasury; no rug pull, founder fraud, or regulatory action has been documented.","sections":[{"content":"PeopleDAO was established following a Snapshot governance vote on December 6, 2021, after ConstitutionDAO — a single-purpose DAO that raised over $47 million from more than 17,000 contributors in an attempt to purchase a first-edition copy of the U.S. Constitution at a Sotheby's auction — failed to win its bid. The ConstitutionDAO founders dissolved the original entity and burned admin control over the $PEOPLE token contract, leaving subsequent governance entirely to the community. Community members then organized PeopleDAO as a successor metaDAO, formally adopting $PEOPLE as its governance token through a Snapshot vote that garnered approximately 645 million PEOPLE tokens in participation (roughly 12.8% of circulating supply at the time). PeopleDAO describes its mission as incubating subDAOs and community projects that advance Web3 adoption and social good. Early incubations included PandaDAO, LanguageDAO, and Constitution Fractionalized. By its own account, PeopleDAO raised approximately $5.4 million in funding for operational and incubation purposes.","heading":"Background and Origins","sources":[{"url":"https://people-dao.com/","name":"PeopleDAO official website","type":"official","credibility":2},{"url":"https://people-dao.com/governance/people-token","name":"PeopleDAO $PEOPLE token governance page","type":"official","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.gate.com/learn/articles/what-is-constitutiondao/672","name":"What is ConstitutionDAO? $PEOPLE Token Explained — Gate Learn","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.kucoin.com/knowledge-base/Knowledge/how-does-constitutiondao-people-work","name":"ConstitutionDAO (PEOPLE) Explained — KuCoin","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"low"},{"content":"PeopleDAO operates as a metaDAO with a multi-team structure. Each team is led by a team lead who coordinates with other teams toward shared goals. A multisig wallet manages DAO treasury funds; the number of required signers and term periods are determined by community governance. At the time of the March 2023 treasury incident, the multisig required six of nine signers to approve transactions. $PEOPLE token holders participate in governance through Snapshot votes, allowing them to propose and vote on protocol decisions. The founding team stepped away from the project following the transition from ConstitutionDAO, leaving ongoing operations to community contributors. No named founders or executives have been publicly identified as directing the organization, consistent with its stated decentralized structure.","heading":"Governance Structure","sources":[{"url":"https://mirror.xyz/mancingcrypto.eth/XXOCxixAVtVICnFgtQJK-kr_41HO_EL8iTHC3QNsYKE","name":"PeopleDAO Governance Structure — Mirror (mancing.crypto)","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=peopledao-loses-120000-after-payment-spreadsheet-is-shared-publicly&tech=dao","name":"PeopleDAO loses $120,000 after payment spreadsheet is shared publicly — Web3 Is Going Great","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"low"},{"content":"On or around March 6, 2023, PeopleDAO's community treasury lost approximately 76.5 ETH (valued at roughly $120,000 at the time) as a result of a social engineering attack. This incident is the most significant documented adverse event in the organization's history. The attack exploited an internal process vulnerability rather than a smart contract flaw: PeopleDAO's accounting lead accidentally shared an editable Google Sheets link — the monthly contributor payout document — in a public Discord channel. An unknown third party with access to the channel used the edit permission to insert a fraudulent row containing their own wallet address for a 76.5 ETH payout, then concealed the row by hiding it from view within the spreadsheet. When team leads reviewed the spreadsheet to authorize the payment batch, the hidden row was not detected. The transactions were processed via a CSV-based asset transfer tool and approved by the required six-of-nine multisig signers, who likewise did not detect the fraudulent entry. Following the transfer, the attacker sent approximately 69.2 ETH to HitBTC and 7.3 ETH to Binance. Attribution: this incident constitutes a theft perpetrated by an unidentified external party against PeopleDAO; it is not an insider rug pull or founder fraud. PeopleDAO reported the theft to the FBI and the FTC, engaged blockchain security firms ZachXBT and SlowMist to assist with on-chain tracing, and offered a 10% white hat bounty to the attacker. No public report of fund recovery or attacker identification has been found as of this writing. PeopleDAO subsequently committed to strengthening multisig protocols, improving accounting controls, and implementing Safe-based technologies with team training.","heading":"Security Incident: March 2023 Payment Spreadsheet Exploit","sources":[{"url":"https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=peopledao-loses-120000-after-payment-spreadsheet-is-shared-publicly&tech=dao","name":"PeopleDAO loses $120,000 after payment spreadsheet is shared publicly — Web3 Is Going Great","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/219214/peopledao-hacked-via-google-sheets","name":"PeopleDAO hacked via Google Sheets, $120,000 worth of ether stolen — The Block","type":"news_article","credibility":1},{"url":"https://cryptotvplus.com/2023/03/peopledao-loses-76-5-eth-to-hack/","name":"PeopleDAO loses 76.5 ETH to hack — CryptoTVplus","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35119317","name":"PeopleDAO exploited by Google Docs edit — Hacker News","type":"community_report","credibility":3}],"severity":"high"},{"content":"The March 2023 incident exposed material weaknesses in PeopleDAO's internal controls at the time. Specifically: shared financial documents were distributed with edit access rather than view-only access; no automated reconciliation or spending-cap safeguard caught the fraudulent row; and the multisig approval process did not include an independent total-payment verification step. The $120,000 loss represented a significant portion of the DAO's reported $5.4 million treasury. The DAO publicly committed to remediation steps following the incident, though no independent audit of those controls has been documented in publicly available sources. No additional treasury incidents have been found in the period from March 2023 through the date of this investigation.","heading":"Operational Controls and Financial Risks","sources":[{"url":"https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=peopledao-loses-120000-after-payment-spreadsheet-is-shared-publicly&tech=dao","name":"PeopleDAO loses $120,000 after payment spreadsheet is shared publicly — Web3 Is Going Great","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/219214/peopledao-hacked-via-google-sheets","name":"PeopleDAO hacked via Google Sheets, $120,000 worth of ether stolen — The Block","type":"news_article","credibility":1}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"No regulatory action by the SEC, CFTC, DOJ, or any other government authority against PeopleDAO or its named contributors has been found in publicly available records. PeopleDAO itself reported the March 2023 theft to the FBI and FTC as a victim, not as a subject of investigation. No civil lawsuits involving PeopleDAO have been identified. The $PEOPLE token was originally issued as a proof-of-donation instrument by ConstitutionDAO in 2021; its current secondary-market trading and governance use by PeopleDAO carries the general legal uncertainty that attaches to unregistered DAO governance tokens in the United States, but no specific enforcement action has been taken.","heading":"Regulatory and Legal Status","sources":[{"url":"https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=peopledao-loses-120000-after-payment-spreadsheet-is-shared-publicly&tech=dao","name":"PeopleDAO loses $120,000 after payment spreadsheet is shared publicly — Web3 Is Going Great","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"low"},{"content":"The $PEOPLE ERC-20 token (ConstitutionDAO) trades on Ethereum under ticker PEOPLE. As of early 2026, Etherscan data showed approximately 19,203 holders and a price of approximately $0.007, implying an on-chain market cap of roughly $35.6 million. The token had a total supply of approximately 5.06 billion. KuCoin removed PEOPLE from Spot Margin trading in November 2025, reflecting reduced institutional liquidity support. Price action in 2024 was driven in part by renewed retail interest in 'PolitiFi' tokens. GitHub activity attributed to PeopleDAO's repositories showed contributions as recently as August 2024. The original PeopleDAO website (people-dao.com) remains live, last reflecting operational content from approximately June 2022. No evidence of an active subDAO incubation pipeline beyond PandaDAO, LanguageDAO, and Constitution Fractionalized has been found in more recent public records, suggesting organizational activity may have diminished significantly since 2022-2023.","heading":"Token and Community Status","sources":[{"url":"https://etherscan.io/token/0x7a58c0be72be218b41c608b7fe7c5bb630736c71","name":"ConstitutionDAO (PEOPLE) ERC-20 Token Tracker — Etherscan","type":"on_chain","credibility":1},{"url":"https://github.com/People-DAO","name":"PeopleDAO GitHub","type":"official","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.ccn.com/analysis/crypto/constitutiondao-people-price-prediction/","name":"ConstitutionDAO Price Prediction 2025 — CCN","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"low"}],"timeline":[{"date":"2021-11","event":"ConstitutionDAO forms and raises over $47 million in ETH from more than 17,000 contributors to bid on a first-edition U.S. Constitution at Sotheby's.","source":"Gate Learn — What is ConstitutionDAO?","source_url":"https://www.gate.com/learn/articles/what-is-constitutiondao/672","date_original":"2021-11-01"},{"date":"2021-11-18","event":"ConstitutionDAO loses the Sotheby's auction. Founders dissolve the DAO, burn admin control of the $PEOPLE token, and begin donor refunds.","source":"Gate Learn — What is ConstitutionDAO?","source_url":"https://www.gate.com/learn/articles/what-is-constitutiondao/672"},{"date":"2021-12-06","event":"Community Snapshot vote establishes PeopleDAO, adopting $PEOPLE as governance token. Approximately 645 million PEOPLE tokens participate in the vote.","source":"PeopleDAO official website","source_url":"https://people-dao.com/"},{"date":"2022-06","event":"PeopleDAO reports incubation of PandaDAO and LanguageDAO as subDAOs, plus Constitution Fractionalized as a community project. Treasury reportedly holds approximately $5.4 million.","source":"PeopleDAO official website","source_url":"https://people-dao.com/","date_original":"2022-06-01"},{"date":"2023-03-06","event":"PeopleDAO accounting lead accidentally shares an editable payment spreadsheet link in a public Discord channel. An unknown third party inserts a fraudulent 76.5 ETH payment row, hides it, and the multisig approves the batch transfer. PeopleDAO loses approximately $120,000.","source":"Web3 Is Going Great","source_url":"https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=peopledao-loses-120000-after-payment-spreadsheet-is-shared-publicly&tech=dao"},{"date":"2023-03-11","event":"PeopleDAO publicly discloses the theft, reports it to the FBI and FTC, engages ZachXBT and SlowMist for on-chain tracing, and offers a 10% white hat bounty to the attacker. Attacker sends 69.2 ETH to HitBTC and 7.3 ETH to Binance.","source":"The Block","source_url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/219214/peopledao-hacked-via-google-sheets"},{"date":"2025-11","event":"KuCoin removes $PEOPLE from Spot Margin trading, reducing leveraged liquidity options for the token.","source":"CCN — ConstitutionDAO Price Prediction 2025","source_url":"https://www.ccn.com/analysis/crypto/constitutiondao-people-price-prediction/","date_original":"2025-11-01"}],"sources_used":[{"url":"https://people-dao.com/","name":"PeopleDAO official website","type":"official","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260519070511/https://people-dao.com/","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-05-19T07:05:11+00:00"},{"url":"https://people-dao.com/governance/people-token","name":"PeopleDAO $PEOPLE token governance page","type":"official","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260218210805/https://people-dao.com/governance/people-token","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-02-18T21:08:05+00:00"},{"url":"https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=peopledao-loses-120000-after-payment-spreadsheet-is-shared-publicly&tech=dao","name":"PeopleDAO loses $120,000 after payment spreadsheet is shared publicly — Web3 Is Going Great","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20250922223716/https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/?tech=dao&id=peopledao-loses-120000-after-payment-spreadsheet-is-shared-publicly","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2025-09-22T22:37:16+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/219214/peopledao-hacked-via-google-sheets","name":"PeopleDAO hacked via Google Sheets, $120,000 worth of ether stolen — The Block","type":"news_article","archive_url":null,"credibility":1,"archive_error":"error:no-request","archive_status":"unarchivable","archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://cryptotvplus.com/2023/03/peopledao-loses-76-5-eth-to-hack/","name":"PeopleDAO loses 76.5 ETH to hack — CryptoTVplus","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260313082943/https://cryptotvplus.com/2023/03/peopledao-loses-76-5-eth-to-hack/","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-03-13T08:29:43+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.gate.com/learn/articles/what-is-constitutiondao/672","name":"What is ConstitutionDAO? $PEOPLE Token Explained — Gate Learn","type":"news_article","archive_url":null,"credibility":2,"archive_error":"error:no-request","archive_status":"unarchivable","archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://www.kucoin.com/knowledge-base/Knowledge/how-does-constitutiondao-people-work","name":"ConstitutionDAO (PEOPLE) Explained — KuCoin","type":"news_article","archive_url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260820002647/https://www.kucoin.com/knowledge-base/Knowledge/how-does-constitutiondao-people-work","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-08-20T00:26:47+00:00"},{"url":"https://etherscan.io/token/0x7a58c0be72be218b41c608b7fe7c5bb630736c71","name":"ConstitutionDAO (PEOPLE) ERC-20 Token Tracker — Etherscan","type":"on_chain","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260725134916/https://etherscan.io/token/0x7a58c0be72be218b41c608b7fe7c5bb630736c71","credibility":1,"archive_timestamp":"2026-07-25T13:49:16+00:00"},{"url":"https://github.com/People-DAO","name":"PeopleDAO GitHub","type":"official","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260719162438/https://github.com/People-DAO","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-07-19T16:24:38+00:00"},{"url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35119317","name":"PeopleDAO exploited by Google Docs edit — Hacker News","type":"community_report","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260215111806/https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35119317","credibility":3,"archive_timestamp":"2026-02-15T11:18:06+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.ccn.com/analysis/crypto/constitutiondao-people-price-prediction/","name":"ConstitutionDAO Price Prediction 2025 — CCN","type":"news_article","archive_url":null,"credibility":2,"archive_error":"error:no-request","archive_status":"unarchivable","archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://phoebeai.medium.com/constitutiondao-people-analysis-market-overview-3c5333db70f8","name":"ConstitutionDAO (PEOPLE) Analysis and Market Overview — PhoebeAI / Medium","type":"research","archive_url":null,"credibility":3,"archive_error":"error:no-request","archive_status":"unarchivable","archive_timestamp":null}],"source_tags":["defillama"],"addresses":[],"reviewed":true,"reviewed_by":null,"model_used":"claude-sonnet-4-6","created_at":"2026-05-04T02:54:43.678973+00:00","updated_at":"2026-08-25T07:32:42.329+00:00"}}