The Aragon Association, one of the biggest crypto projects building tools to support decentralized governance, is facing pressure from activist investors eyeing its $180 million treasury. In June, the Swiss-based Aragon explored “selling the project” to an undisclosed bidder for an unknown price, according to a screenshot of a conversation held between an employee of the investment firm Arca and other activists. This was revealed in a 24-page investigative report on Aragon Association written by the crypto trading firm Patagon Management LLC.
The report accuses the Aragon Association of years of missteps, including squandering its hulking $180 million treasury of various crypto assets, and questions the organization’s compliance with Swiss non-profit law. Activist investors have accumulated ANT governance tokens in order to pull the levers of Aragon DAO; a token entitles holders to vote on governance matters like how to manage or distribute the project’s treasury.
In May, Aragon, wary of the activists’ growing influence, canceled plans to give token holders control over its treasury. The CEO of Patagon, Diogenes Caseres, said his firm compiled the report after Aragon expelled the activist investors from its Discord server. According to the report, the media blackout was ordered by Aragon’s leader, Joan Arus, as a precondition to negotiations.
The proposed buyout of Aragon was expected to take “a couple of weeks,” according to the screenshot dated June 12; Aragon planned to “re-evaluate” the activists’ proposals if the deal did not go through. The report, which does not detail the status of any sale negotiations, indicates activists have explored a number of mechanisms through which to process redemptions of ANT.
A representative for the Aragon Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The report delivered to Aragon’s Head of Ecosystem Ivan Furtunov Wednesday came from a freshly created crypto wallet. He responded with his own transaction-embedded missive in which he rejected some of the report’s conclusions as “a joke.”