2025-06-16
Brief Whiteboard on CSWF
- Cardano's 1.7 billion ADA treasury is passive, single asset, and unmanaged, which is unsafe: its buying power fell from 5 billion when ADA dropped from 3 dollars to 25 cents.
- A Sovereign Wealth Fund would actively manage a percentage, alpha, diversifying into stablecoins, Bitcoin, and yield via a three step divest, purchase, and place process.
- The structure is a Wyoming Duna DAO over an offshore entity, with an elected board, asset managers, and an audit layer, exactly how Ripple, BlackRock, and others operate.
- Divesting 100 million ADA over 30 to 90 days will not move the market, and the real problem is Cardano's weak stablecoin ecosystem.
- He will submit a governance action at Rare Evo and retire if the ecosystem rejects his ideas.
26 entries
Frames a whiteboard on the Sovereign Wealth Fund, noting Cardano's treasury is passive, single asset, and unmanaged with about 1.7 billion ADA.
Introduces alpha, the percentage of the treasury to actively manage, whether 10, 20, or 30 percent.
Warns a single asset treasury is unsafe: when ADA fell from 3 dollars to 25 cents, its buying power dropped from nearly 5 billion.
Lists treasury goals of wealth creation, liquidity, and ecosystem growth measured by KPIs like transaction volume, TVL, and active users.
A multi asset treasury holding other ecosystems' assets makes strategic partnerships easier, like owning a board seat.
The 100 million stablecoin concept with instruments like iUSD CDPs, the algorithmic DJED, and asset backed USDM and USDA.
A three step process starting with divestment via time weighted average pricing or OTC iceberging to exit without moving the market.
30 percent of Bitcoin is held by institutions, and divesting 100 million ADA would take 30 to 90 days through OTC desks.
Billions in ADA change hands weekly so the markets are deep enough to divest, and firms like Wade charge 25 to 100 basis points.
The purchase and placement steps, buying alternative assets and placing them into DeFi via a regulated treasury manager.
Gives yield examples: real world assets like a SpaceX launch insurance deal, and tokenizing RealFi's 18 percent loans on chain.
A headline that Cardano goes all in on Bitcoin would prime Bitcoin DeFi, but Cardano has only 33 million in stablecoins, a 9.8 percent ratio versus Solana's 110 percent and Ethereum's 198 percent.
Asks where profits go: reinvest into more assets, or buy ADA and return it to the treasury.
Cites the A16Z post on the death of foundations and new structures like the Wyoming Duna DAO used for the Midnight Foundation.
A layered organization: a Duna DAO with a governing board controlling an offshore BVI or Cayman entity that holds the ADA.
The governing board would be elected by ADA holders with finance backgrounds, plus an audit layer and a liquidation path back to ADA.
Alpha can start at 10 percent of the 170 million ADA and grow to 20 percent over time, enabling strategic partnerships and DeFi liquidity.
The treasury becomes multi asset anyway via Babel fees, becoming an AVS with Midnight, and a possible 20 percent Bitcoin DeFi tax.
Every big crypto entity does treasury management, from Ripple to the Solana and Avalanche foundations, and how BlackRock, MicroStrategy, and Grayscale acquire holdings.
ADA has survived billions in divestments, so a 100 million exit will not collapse it, and the real problem is a weak stablecoin ecosystem.
He has no dog in the fight but is frustrated when people treat his objective knowledge of OTC desks and market makers as mere opinion.
Cites the Japanese whales who bought at 0.2 cents and sold at dollar increments, and Phil from Emurgo who ran this function in Singapore.
The 600 million theft accusation after 8 years of doing the right thing broke something in him, so he will no longer coddle people.
He will submit a governance action for active management at Rare Evo, and if his ideas are rejected he will retire, with no ego.
Cardano has technological superiority but not governance superiority or investment momentum, and must act decisively to reach number one.
The industry does not take 33 million in stablecoins or 330 million TVL seriously, and the ecosystem can fix the numbers or keep playing victim.