Ethereum Name Service (ENS) Community Approves Sale of $16.5 Million in ETH

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) DAO has approved a proposal to sell 10,000 ETH to fund project operations for the coming months.

Updated February 9, 2023:

According to blockchain data, on the afternoon of February 9, Ethereum Name Service successfully sold 10,000 ETH at an average price of $1,623, raising $16.2 million.

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) February 9, 2023

Original Post:

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) community has voted to sell 10,000 ETH, currently valued at $16.5 million, to fund operations over the next 18-24 months.

The vote concluded with 89% support for liquidating one-quarter of the ETH held in the ENS treasury. The project previously reported having approximately 40,746 ETH (worth $67 million) and 2.46 million USDC in reserves.

ENS will proceed to swap 10,000 ETH for USDC via CoW Swap, a decentralized exchange that was attacked on February 7. Ethereum Name Service aims to raise at least $13 million from this sale.

The funds will be used to cover operational costs for ENS Labs, the development team behind the project. According to the agreement, ENS Labs will receive $8.4 million over the next two years.

Additionally, the Ethereum Name Service community is discussing further funding for project-specific teams, which may require an additional $6 million for operations over the next 48 months.

In its most recent report, Ethereum Name Service noted 56,000 new .eth domain registrations in January 2023, bringing the total to 2.8 million domains. The project also generated $1.8 million in fees, all of which will be transferred to ENS DAO.

ENS Stats for January 2023:

• 56k new .eth registrations (totaling 2.8 million names)
• $1.8 million in protocol revenue (all allocated to @ENS_DAO)
• 23k new Ethereum accounts with at least one ENS name (totaling 648k)
• 5,599 avatar records set (totaling 70k)
• 1,622 DWeb content records set (totaling 19,133)

— ens.eth (@ensdomains) February 1, 2023