DAOs and Foundation Companies - CFAAR Cayman

A panel of world leading experts discussed the use of Cayman Islands Foundation Companies as legal wrappers for DAOs. The panel was comprised of Melissa Lim from Walkers, Oliver Bell from Marfire, Jonathan Turnham from Travers Thorp Alberga, Jonathan Bain from Bridgestream, and Cassandra Ronaldson from Interpath Advisory.

Cayman Islands Foundation Companies are increasingly the predominant legal wrapper for DAOs. Leading blockchains, such as Arbitrum and Optimism, and leading Web 3 projects, such as Worldcoin and the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT rely on Foundation Companies. Indeed, according to the Cayman Islands General Registry, 24% of all Cayman Islands Foundation Companies with Fintech or VASP activities were incorporated in the period 1 January 2024 to 8 May 2024.

One reason Foundation Companies are so widely used in relation to DAOs is that Cayman Islands law allows for significant flexibility when preparing the Memorandum and Articles of association for a Foundation Company and thus allows for a high degree of flexibility in the distribution of rights, powers and duties as between the Foundation's founders, directors, members, supervisors, and token holders.

A special thank you to the Cayman CFAAR committee for assisting in putting the event together, including Adrian Fourie, Shelley White, Daniel Hayward-Hughes, Gemma Bellfield (nee Lardner), Jennifer Fox, Corey Byrne, Nicholas Fox, Spencer Vickers, Nick Kedney, Cassandra Ronaldson, Brian Nounev, Andrew Morrison, Yvonne Plamondon, Paul Hennelly, Nicola Cowan, Cally Daly, and Charith Seneviratne.

Stay tuned for future CFAAR events.