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{"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"5d26f0bb-3afb-4dfe-81f0-b359d5ee5c90","kind":"publish","page_slug":"daosfun","published_at":"2026-06-01T03:12:36.262Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Daos.fun","sections":[{"content":"Daos.fun is a Solana blockchain platform that facilitates the creation and management of on-chain investment DAOs, sometimes described as 'decentralized hedge funds.' The platform was launched on September 26, 2024, by the developer operating under the handle Baoskee, who is listed by Alliance DAO accelerator as Bao Mai of San Francisco, CA. Alliance DAO is one of the few known institutional backers of the project. The platform builds on a premise analogous to pump.fun — lowering the barrier for retail-facing fund formation — but targets memecoin trading rather than token launches. Daos.fun was described by Messari as bringing 'decentralized hedge funds to Solana.' The GitHub organization operates under the handle tailwind-zone, where multiple open-source Solana and Sei developer-tool repositories are hosted. Developer documentation is published at developer.tailwind.zone. The platform initially operated in an invitation-only beta, with new creator access gated by invitation codes distributed by Baoskee or referrals from existing creators.","heading":"Platform Overview and Background","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Daos.fun Brings Decentralized Hedge Funds to Solana — Messari","type":"news_article","url":"https://messari.io/newsletter/unqualified-opinions/daos-fun-brings-decentralized-hedge-funds-to-solana"},{"credibility":2,"name":"DAOs.Fun — IQ.wiki","type":"research","url":"https://iq.wiki/wiki/daosfun"},{"credibility":2,"name":"DAOS.FUN — Alliance Portfolio Page","type":"official","url":"https://alliance.xyz/companies/daosfun"},{"credibility":2,"name":"From Memecoins to Meme Hedge Funds: What is DAOS.fun? — Solana Floor","type":"news_article","url":"https://solanafloor.com/news/from-memecoins-to-meme-hedge-funds-what-is-daos-fun"},{"credibility":2,"name":"daos.fun GitHub organization (tailwind-zone)","type":"official","url":"https://github.com/tailwind-zone"}]},{"content":"The primary founder and developer of Daos.fun operates publicly under the pseudonym Baoskee and the X handle @baoskee. Alliance DAO's public portfolio listing identifies the founder's legal name as Bao Mai, with a presence on both X and LinkedIn; however, Baoskee has not made an explicit public statement connecting their pseudonym to that legal name, and limited biographical detail has been independently verified. No other core team members have been publicly identified by name or role. The platform's documentation and official channels do not disclose team composition, technical leads, or legal corporate structure. This limited identity disclosure is a meaningful risk signal for a platform that holds investor funds in creator-controlled wallets: users cannot readily assess prior professional history, jurisdiction of incorporation, or whether the operator is subject to regulatory jurisdiction. Shaw Walters, the named founder of Eliza Labs (formerly ai16z on daos.fun), is a separate individual who used daos.fun as a launch venue; he is not part of the daos.fun operating team.","heading":"Team Transparency and Founder Identity","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"DAOS.FUN — Alliance Portfolio Page (lists Bao Mai as founder)","type":"official","url":"https://alliance.xyz/companies/daosfun"},{"credibility":3,"name":"baoskee — X profile","type":"official","url":"https://x.com/baoskee"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Shaw Walters — IQ.wiki","type":"research","url":"https://iq.wiki/wiki/shaw-walters"},{"credibility":2,"name":"RootData — daos.fun project introduction and team","type":"research","url":"http://www.rootdata.com/Projects/detail/daos.fun?k=MTQ4MjI%3D"}]},{"content":"Daos.fun's custody model places full trading control in the hands of the fund creator from the moment a fundraising round closes. Once a DAO's fundraising target is met, the platform mints DAO tokens to contributors and assigns the pooled SOL to a smart wallet controlled by the fund creator. The creator may then purchase any SPL token available via the Jupiter aggregator API without requiring investor approval for individual trades. This is a unilateral-custody design: investors receive DAO tokens whose market price reflects the fund's on-chain NAV, but they have no veto or governance rights over specific investment decisions during the operational phase. Token holders can only exit by selling their DAO tokens on the platform's automated market maker (AMM), subject to a constraint that tokens cannot be redeemed for the underlying assets if the fund is trading above its initial raise value — a mechanic that can trap investors in depreciating positions. Upon expiration (3–12 months), the treasury wallet is locked and DAO tokens become redeemable for the fund's remaining assets on a pro-rata basis. The platform's documentation describes a 50/50 profit split between fund creator and investors at expiration, with management fees set at the creator's discretion during fundraising. If a fundraising round fails to meet its target within one week, investors may withdraw their SOL subject to a 10% early-redemption penalty. No public smart-contract audit report has been identified for the platform's on-chain code as of the date of this investigation.","heading":"Custody Model and Fund Manager Controls","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"daos.fun developer documentation — intro","type":"official","url":"https://developer.tailwind.zone/docs/intro"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Analyzing daos.fun: Can ai16z's explosive popularity recreate the myth of pump.fun? — ChainCatcher","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2149146"},{"credibility":2,"name":"daos.fun: The next liquidity black hole? — ChainCatcher","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2149146"},{"credibility":3,"name":"What is DAOs Fun? Your guide to this unique Web3 platform — Best Sniper Bots","type":"news_article","url":"https://bestsniperbots.com/what-is-daos-fun/"}]},{"content":"A widely documented structural risk for daos.fun DAO tokens is the extreme divergence between the market capitalization of DAO tokens and the actual net asset value (NAV) of funds under management. Analysis published by ChainCatcher identified that the ai16z fund carried a market-cap-to-NAV ratio of approximately 58:1; the SEQUOAI fund traded at roughly 40:1; and the Norm Capital fund at approximately 29:1. In practical terms, the ai16z fund held approximately $800,000 in on-chain assets at a time when its DAO token market capitalization was approximately $47 million. These premiums are sustained entirely by speculative demand and belief in the fund creator's future trading performance rather than by underlying assets. The Block reported in early 2025 that the top daos.fun meme funds saw market caps decline by as much as 80% within a seven-day period, and that the ai16z DAO token dropped approximately 80% from its peak. The Norm Capital fund also suffered severe losses, with its market cap declining from roughly $170,000 to approximately $25,000. Contributors who purchase DAO tokens at elevated premiums face the risk of near-total loss of their investment in scenarios where speculative demand evaporates, independent of any misconduct by the fund creator.","heading":"Market-Cap-to-NAV Premium and Speculative Risk","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Analyzing daos.fun: Can ai16z's explosive popularity recreate the myth of pump.fun? — ChainCatcher","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2149152"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Top daos.fun Memefunds See Market Caps Tank with ai16z Dropping 80% — The Block","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/323721/top-daos-fun-memefunds-see-market-caps-tank-with-ai16z-dropping-80-in-the-past-seven-days"},{"credibility":2,"name":"daos.fun: The next liquidity black hole? — ChainCatcher","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2149146"}]},{"content":"In January 2025, the Aiccelerate DAO project launched its AICC token on the daos.fun platform with prominent advisors including Shaw Walters (ai16z co-founder) and the co-founder of the Story protocol. On January 11, 2025, AICC's market capitalization briefly exceeded $300 million before collapsing amid widespread selloffs. The Aiccelerate team had allocated tokens worth between $250,000 and $400,000 at launch to approximately 250 key opinion leaders (KOLs) via daos.fun's whitelist mechanism. Multiple whitelisted participants, including crypto media outlet Bankless and its associated venture fund Bankless Ventures, sold their allocations during or immediately following the token's launch day. The project's founder publicly accused Bankless of promoting AICC on YouTube while simultaneously selling. Bankless co-founder David Hoffman subsequently acknowledged the sale as 'an impulsive mistake' and stated he had repurchased tokens. The incident drew widespread criticism of daos.fun's whitelist architecture for lacking enforceable vesting or lock-up periods, relying instead on informal 'moral constraint.' Critics proposed public whitelist auctions and transparent selling limits as structural remedies. No legal action by investors has been confirmed in publicly available sources. ChainCatcher reported that the AICC collapse had a downstream effect on other AI-sector tokens in the same market cycle.","heading":"Notable Incident: Aiccelerate DAO (AICC) KOL Dump — January 2025","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"The culprit behind AI's downturn? The 'daos.fun bubble' behind AICC's plummet — ChainCatcher","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2162249"},{"credibility":2,"name":"The Culprit Behind AI's Shutdown? The 'daos.fun Bubble' Behind AICC's Plummet — WEEX Crypto News","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.weex.com/news/detail/the-culprit-behind-ais-shutdown-the-daosfun-bubble-behind-aiccs-plummet-20589"}]},{"content":"The ai16z fund, created by Shaw Walters using the platform handle @pmairca, is the highest-profile DAO launched on daos.fun. It initially raised 420.69 SOL and reached a peak market capitalization approaching $100 million in late 2024. The fund was marketed as an AI-driven investment vehicle whose AI agent, styled as 'Marc AIndreessen,' was trained on writings attributed to venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. In early 2025, the Eliza Labs entity behind the ai16z DAO rebranded to ElizaOS following a request from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), which flagged brand confusion. Decrypt and The Block reported the rebrand; the underlying AI16Z token ticker was retained pending community vote. The ai16z case demonstrates both the platform's ability to attract high-profile projects and its limitations: the fund's on-chain AUM was approximately $800,000 at a time when its market cap exceeded $47 million, representing a 58:1 speculative premium. Separately, the launch of a surprise $ELIZA token by the project faced community backlash and was accompanied by scam tokens that mimicked the name, illustrating the broader impersonation risk within the daos.fun ecosystem.","heading":"Notable DAO: ai16z / ElizaOS","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"AI agent platform ai16z officially rebrands to ElizaOS — The Block","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/337614/ai-agent-platform-ai16z-officially-rebrands-to-elizaos"},{"credibility":1,"name":"AI DAO ai16z Becomes ElizaOS Amid Branding Confusion Concerns — Decrypt","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/303244/ai-dao-ai16z-becomes-elizaos-amid-branding-confusion-concerns"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Ai16z Is Rebranding as ElizaOS After Request From Venture Firm a16z — Unchained","type":"news_article","url":"https://unchainedcrypto.com/ai16z-is-rebranding-as-elizaos-after-request-from-venture-firm-a16z/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Ai16z DAO's Surprise $ELIZA Token Launch Faces Backlash, Scams Add to Turmoil — Solana Floor","type":"news_article","url":"https://solanafloor.com/news/ai16z-dao-s-surprise-eliza-token-launch-faces-backlash-scams-add-to-turmoil"}]},{"content":"Daos.fun operates in a materially uncertain regulatory environment. The platform's DAOs function as pooled investment vehicles in which a fund creator exercises discretionary trading authority over contributed capital on behalf of token holders who expect returns based on the manager's efforts. This structure closely resembles the 'investment contract' test articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Howey v. SEC and later applied by the SEC in its 2017 investigation into 'The DAO,' in which the Commission concluded that DAO tokens constituted securities. The SEC's 2024 settlement with BarnBridge DAO further established that the Commission views DeFi protocols managing pooled assets as potentially operating as unregistered investment companies. Daos.fun and the fund creators operating on it do not appear to have registered any offerings with the SEC or obtained exemptions under Regulation D or equivalent frameworks. The platform operates globally with no disclosed KYC/AML procedures. Multiple analytical sources describe this as a 'regulatory gray area.' No enforcement action against daos.fun or Baoskee by the SEC, CFTC, DOJ, or any other regulator has been identified in publicly available records as of May 2026. This absence of action does not constitute confirmation of compliance.","heading":"Regulatory and Legal Exposure","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"SEC Issues Investigative Report Concluding DAO Tokens Were Securities — SEC.gov","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2017-131"},{"credibility":1,"name":"SEC's Settlement With BarnBridge DAO: Implications for the Future of DeFi — K&L Gates","type":"research","url":"https://www.klgates.com/SECs-Settlement-With-BarnBridge-DAO-Implications-for-the-Future-of-DeFi-1-25-2024"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Analyzing daos.fun: Can ai16z's explosive popularity recreate the myth of pump.fun? — Bitget News","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.bitget.com/news/detail/12560604309912"}]},{"content":"Daos.fun has released multiple platform upgrades since its September 2024 launch. The V3 upgrade, reported by The Defiant, introduced 'Pool Parties,' a staking feature that allows qualifying DAO token holders to earn fees on transactions at a 0.5% fee rate auto-compounded into SOL and ai16z tokens using a Uniswap V2 fee model. V3 also allows stakers to designate proxy investment rights, representing a meaningful expansion of governance participation relative to the original design. A subsequent product line, Founder DAOs, was announced as a Kickstarter-style decentralized fundraising mechanism: creators issue 10 billion tokens, 4 billion sold via a bonding curve, team allocations locked until post-migration vesting begins 3 months after Raydium liquidity migration. The Founder DAO structure introduces a bonding curve and locked team vesting, which are standard investor-protection patterns more common to token launches than the original investment DAO model. These iterative upgrades suggest active platform development but no public security audit of any version has been identified.","heading":"Platform Version History and V3 Upgrade","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"DAOs.Fun Launches V3 Upgrade — The Defiant","type":"news_article","url":"https://thedefiant.io/news/defi/daos-fun-launches-v3-upgrade"},{"credibility":2,"name":"daos.fun: Launching decentralized fundraising DAO Founder DAOs on Solana — ChainCatcher","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2169596"}]},{"content":"Shortly after the ai16z fund attracted significant media coverage in late 2024, the platform experienced site crashes due to traffic spikes, as documented by Solana Floor. AUM reporting metrics were found to be materially inaccurate: ChainCatcher identified instances where the platform reported $232 billion in assets under management for a DAO whose token market cap was approximately $106,000, suggesting a bug in NAV calculation display. These issues are consistent with a platform that scaled rapidly beyond its initial design parameters. The platform was described in its own documentation as 'originally designed for groups of friends wanting to trade memecoins with each other,' underscoring its informal origins relative to its current scale.","heading":"Platform Reliability and Technical Issues","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"From Memecoins to Meme Hedge Funds: What is DAOS.fun? — Solana Floor","type":"news_article","url":"https://solanafloor.com/news/from-memecoins-to-meme-hedge-funds-what-is-daos-fun"},{"credibility":2,"name":"daos.fun: The next liquidity black hole? — ChainCatcher","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2149146"}]},{"content":"Daos.fun attracted early attention from the Solana community and crypto media as a novel mechanism for retail-accessible fund management. Its association with ai16z / ElizaOS brought it significant visibility in the AI-crypto intersection. The platform is backed by Alliance DAO, a recognized Solana ecosystem accelerator. However, analyst commentary has consistently noted the extreme speculative premiums on DAO tokens and the risk of systematic losses when hype dissipates. The AICC incident in January 2025 generated widespread negative coverage focused on the platform's whitelist architecture and its facilitation of insider token dumps. ScamAdviser flagged the platform's domain ownership as hidden, noting this as a general caution while acknowledging legitimate operators often also use privacy registration. No confirmed rug pulls by Daos.fun the platform operator have been identified; the structural risks relate primarily to fund-level misconduct and speculative token pricing rather than platform-operator exit fraud.","heading":"Reputation and Industry Perception","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":3,"name":"daos.fun Reviews — ScamAdviser","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.scamadviser.com/check-website/daos.fun"},{"credibility":3,"name":"daos.fun: Why VCs are Watching The Platform Behind Crypto's Biggest Meme Funds — Rezolut / Medium","type":"research","url":"https://rzlt.medium.com/daos-fun-why-vcs-are-watching-the-platform-behind-cryptos-biggest-meme-funds-7fe137be2422"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Dao.fun Analysis: When PartyDAO meets Pump.Fun — CoinLive","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coinlive.com/news/dao-fun-analysis-when-partydao-meets-pump-fun"}]}],"sources_used":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Daos.fun Brings Decentralized Hedge Funds to Solana — Messari","type":"news_article","url":"https://messari.io/newsletter/unqualified-opinions/daos-fun-brings-decentralized-hedge-funds-to-solana"},{"credibility":2,"name":"DAOs.Fun — IQ.wiki","type":"research","url":"https://iq.wiki/wiki/daosfun"},{"credibility":2,"name":"DAOS.FUN — Alliance Portfolio Page","type":"official","url":"https://alliance.xyz/companies/daosfun"},{"credibility":2,"name":"From Memecoins to Meme Hedge Funds: What is DAOS.fun? — Solana Floor","type":"news_article","url":"https://solanafloor.com/news/from-memecoins-to-meme-hedge-funds-what-is-daos-fun"},{"credibility":2,"name":"daos.fun: The next liquidity black hole? — ChainCatcher","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2149146"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Analyzing daos.fun: Can ai16z's explosive popularity recreate the myth of pump.fun? — ChainCatcher","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2149152"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Top daos.fun Memefunds See Market Caps Tank with ai16z Dropping 80% — The Block","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/323721/top-daos-fun-memefunds-see-market-caps-tank-with-ai16z-dropping-80-in-the-past-seven-days"},{"credibility":2,"name":"The culprit behind AI's downturn? The 'daos.fun bubble' behind AICC's plummet — ChainCatcher","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2162249"},{"credibility":1,"name":"AI agent platform ai16z officially rebrands to ElizaOS — The Block","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/337614/ai-agent-platform-ai16z-officially-rebrands-to-elizaos"},{"credibility":1,"name":"AI DAO ai16z Becomes ElizaOS Amid Branding Confusion Concerns — Decrypt","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/303244/ai-dao-ai16z-becomes-elizaos-amid-branding-confusion-concerns"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Ai16z Is Rebranding as ElizaOS After Request From Venture Firm a16z — Unchained","type":"news_article","url":"https://unchainedcrypto.com/ai16z-is-rebranding-as-elizaos-after-request-from-venture-firm-a16z/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Ai16z DAO's Surprise $ELIZA Token Launch Faces Backlash — Solana Floor","type":"news_article","url":"https://solanafloor.com/news/ai16z-dao-s-surprise-eliza-token-launch-faces-backlash-scams-add-to-turmoil"},{"credibility":1,"name":"SEC Issues Investigative Report Concluding DAO Tokens Were Securities — SEC.gov","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2017-131"},{"credibility":1,"name":"SEC's Settlement With BarnBridge DAO — K&L Gates","type":"research","url":"https://www.klgates.com/SECs-Settlement-With-BarnBridge-DAO-Implications-for-the-Future-of-DeFi-1-25-2024"},{"credibility":2,"name":"DAOs.Fun Launches V3 Upgrade — The Defiant","type":"news_article","url":"https://thedefiant.io/news/defi/daos-fun-launches-v3-upgrade"},{"credibility":2,"name":"daos.fun: Launching Founder DAOs on Solana — ChainCatcher","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2169596"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Shaw Walters — IQ.wiki","type":"research","url":"https://iq.wiki/wiki/shaw-walters"},{"credibility":2,"name":"daos.fun developer documentation — intro","type":"official","url":"https://developer.tailwind.zone/docs/intro"},{"credibility":3,"name":"daos.fun Reviews — ScamAdviser","type":"community_report","url":"https://www.scamadviser.com/check-website/daos.fun"},{"credibility":2,"name":"daos.fun GitHub organization (tailwind-zone)","type":"official","url":"https://github.com/tailwind-zone"},{"credibility":2,"name":"RootData — daos.fun project introduction","type":"research","url":"http://www.rootdata.com/Projects/detail/daos.fun?k=MTQ4MjI%3D"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Interpretation of ai16z launch platform daos.fun — Bitget News","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.bitget.com/news/detail/12560604311124"}],"summary":"Daos.fun is a Solana-based platform that allows vetted creators to launch on-chain investment DAOs (marketed as 'meme hedge funds'), raising SOL from the public and trading it across SPL tokens with full unilateral discretion. Launched in September 2024 by pseudonymous developer Baoskee (identified by Alliance DAO as Bao Mai), the platform gained rapid notoriety through the ai16z / ElizaOS DAO and attracted significant speculative capital. Structural risks include fund-manager custody with no investor veto, extreme market-cap-to-NAV premiums documented at 29x–58x, the absence of a public smart-contract audit, and unresolved securities-law exposure in multiple jurisdictions.","timeline":[{"date":"2024-09-26","event":"Daos.fun platform launched on Solana by Baoskee (Bao Mai), backed by Alliance DAO accelerator","source":"IQ.wiki / Solana Floor","source_url":"https://iq.wiki/wiki/daosfun"},{"date":"2024-10-01","event":"ai16z DAO created by Shaw Walters (@pmairca) on daos.fun, initially raising 420.69 SOL; marketed as an AI-driven investment vehicle","source":"Solana Floor","source_url":"https://solanafloor.com/news/from-memecoins-to-meme-hedge-funds-what-is-daos-fun"},{"date":"2024-11-01","event":"ai16z DAO token market cap approaches $100 million amid speculative demand, with documented market-cap-to-NAV ratio of 58:1","source":"ChainCatcher","source_url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2149146"},{"date":"2024-12-01","event":"Top daos.fun meme funds experience market-cap declines of up to 80% in a seven-day period; ai16z drops 80% from peak","source":"The Block","source_url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/323721/top-daos-fun-memefunds-see-market-caps-tank-with-ai16z-dropping-80-in-the-past-seven-days"},{"date":"2025-01-11","event":"Aiccelerate DAO's AICC token launches on daos.fun; market cap briefly exceeds $300 million before collapsing amid KOL selloffs; Bankless acknowledges selling and describes it as 'an impulsive mistake'","source":"ChainCatcher","source_url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2162249"},{"date":"2025-01-01","event":"ai16z / ElizaOS rebrands following request by venture firm Andreessen Horowitz citing brand confusion; AI16Z ticker retained pending community vote","source":"The Block / Decrypt","source_url":"https://www.theblock.co/post/337614/ai-agent-platform-ai16z-officially-rebrands-to-elizaos"},{"date":"2025-03-01","event":"Daos.fun launches V3 upgrade introducing 'Pool Parties' staking feature with 0.5% fee auto-compounding","source":"The Defiant","source_url":"https://thedefiant.io/news/defi/daos-fun-launches-v3-upgrade"},{"date":"2025-06-01","event":"Daos.fun introduces Founder DAOs product: Kickstarter-style token fundraising with bonding curve and locked team vesting on Solana","source":"ChainCatcher","source_url":"https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2169596"}]},"v":1}