DAO

A Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) is a blockchain-based entity governed by smart contracts and community consensus rather than centralized leadership. DAOs enable members to collaborate, make decisions, and manage resources collectively. This innovative structure promotes transparency, accountability, and inclusivity, allowing participants to have a direct say in the organization’s direction. Check out the table on this page that includes crypto projects with descriptions and interest levels based on the CryptoTotem algorithm. Learn more ↓
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Projects Status Date start
Raised Launchpad Ecosystem X score Interest lvl
Industry
ICO
TBA
$247,76M
   
Highest
Blockchain
+3
TBA
$167M
   
Highest
DeFi
+3
Past
IDO
IEO
Sep 28, 2021
$230M
High
Finance
+4
Daox bounty
Past
ICO
Sep 28, 2021
High
Recruitment & Crowdsourcing
+3
Past
IDO
IEO
Dec 03, 2021
$4,5M
High
Gaming
+3
Past
DAICO
IEO
Feb 18, 2021
High
Trading & Investing
+1
Past
DAICO
Feb 18, 2021
$15M
High
Web 3.0
+1
Past
ICO
Feb 18, 2021
$26M
High
Social
+1
MANTRA bounty
Past
ICO
IEO
Mar 19, 2021
High
Finance
+3
Past
IDO
Apr 26, 2022
$12,45M
High
Gaming
+3
Past
IEO
Nov 21, 2024
$69,35M
High
Crowdfunding & Lending
+3
Swell bounty
Past
IEO
Nov 07, 2024
High
DeFi
+3
Vana bounty
Past
IEO
Dec 14, 2024
$2,5M
High
Data Analytics
+3
Past
IEO
Apr 23, 2025
$60M
High
Blockchain
+7
Common bounty
Apr 23, 2025
$23,2M
High
Identity & Reputation
+6
Past
ICO
IDO
Apr 21, 2021
$1,9M
Medium
Recruitment & Crowdsourcing
+4
Past
IEO
IDO
Nov 26, 2021
Medium
Real Estate
+1
Past
IDO
IEO
Mar 10, 2021
$2,2M
Medium
Gaming
+3
Mar 10, 2021
Medium
Gaming
+2
Past
IDO
Aug 19, 2021
Medium
Finance
+3
Past
IDO
Sep 14, 2021
Medium
Crowdfunding & Lending
+2
IDO
IEO
Aug 25, 2021
Medium
Crowdfunding & Lending
+2
Past
IDO
IEO
May 27, 2021
$1,6M
Medium
Recruitment & Crowdsourcing
+2
Past
IDO
IEO
Sep 06, 2021
Medium
Gaming
+3
Past
IDO
Nov 16, 2021
Medium
Health & Medicine
+4
Nov 16, 2021
Medium
DAO
Past
ICO
Nov 16, 2021
$48,96M
Medium
Multi-Chain Platform
+5
Past
ICO
IDO
Nov 29, 2021
$1,55M
Medium
Exchanges & Wallets
+5
Past
ICO
Nov 29, 2021
Medium
Blockchain
+4
DAOLaunch bounty
Past
IEO
IDO
Nov 18, 2021
$1,66M
Medium
Crowdfunding & Lending
+2
Past
IEO
Feb 07, 2021
Medium
Finance
+5
Past
IDO
Jan 19, 2022
$6M
Medium
Gaming
+3
EpoxyDAO bounty
Past
IEO
Oct 05, 2020
Medium
Finance
+2
Past
ICO
Oct 05, 2020
Medium
Blockchain
+2
Past
IEO
IDO
Sep 01, 2021
Medium
DeFi
+2
Past
ICO
Sep 01, 2021
Medium
Real Estate
+1
Past
ICO
Sep 01, 2021
$6M
Medium
Crowdfunding & Lending
+3
Past
ICO
IDO
May 27, 2022
Medium
Crowdfunding & Lending
+5
HistoryDAO bounty
Past
IEO
Oct 09, 2022
Medium
Media
+3
Oct 09, 2022
$6,07M
Medium
Finance
+2
Oct 09, 2022
$10M
Medium
Blockchain
+3
IDO
IEO
Apr 11, 2024
$2,5M
Medium
Blockchain
+3
Past
IDO
Oct 24, 2024
$3M
Medium
Finance
+4
Kernel bounty
Oct 24, 2024
$10M
Medium
Blockchain
+4
Past
IDO
Dec 18, 2024
$4,5M
Medium
Blockchain
+3
Q Blockchain bounty
Dec 18, 2024
Medium
Blockchain
+3
Past
IDO
Mar 07, 2025
+1
Medium
Sport
+9
Past
IEO
Mar 27, 2025
Medium
Ecology
+1
Mar 27, 2025
$12M
Medium
Data Analytics
+7
Past
IDO
Jun 15, 2025
+1
Medium
Gaming
+2

Decentralized Autonomous Organization

If you heard anything about the concept of an organization without a big boss, where an anonymous owner of a few tokens can influence the future of the company – it’s probably about DAO.

What is DAO

DAO or Decentralized Autonomous Organization, has become a very popular topic recently. These organizations are blockchain-based and operate without centralized management, so users can create social organizations without knowing the other participants personally, set rules, and make decisions autonomously through blockchain voting. Most importantly, operations in such an organization can be performed automatically.

How does DAOs work

The DAO is based on blockchain technology, which ensures transparency and security of all transactions. In addition, the organization has its own smart contract that defines the rules and procedures for voting. Participants can make proposals and participate in voting. If a proposal receives a majority of votes, it is accepted and automatically implemented by the smart contract.

Smart contracts are actually applications in the form of software code that run within a decentralized system (DApps). Some smart contracts have a more comprehensive design that allows them to interact with other platforms, but most DeFi projects prefer to use them only within their own ecosystem.

DAO token holders automatically become participants in such contracts and perform their functions within the ecosystem based on the smart contract functionality. This ensures the complete independence of individual platform participants from each other and from the system itself. The mini-application itself is sufficient to define the boundaries of interactivity between the user and the system.

In addition, DAOs are categorized into two types:

Public

Public membership implies the possibility for anyone to join the DAO with access to the management of the organization.

Private

A private membership refers to the fact that a new member joining the DAO must pass a certain vetting step. This step may require approval from other members of the organization or verification that entry criteria, such as capital or subject matter expertise, are met.

The type of DAO depends on the purpose of the organization. If decentralized governance needs to involve as many participants as possible, a public type. If the DAO needs to attract only qualified participants for its successful functioning, a private membership type is chosen.

To be considered a rightfully true DAO, its architecture must incorporate several important components from the Web3 space:

  • Blockchain. A customized protocol, such as Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and others, where correct code execution occurs to regulate DAO rules.
  • A voting system. To exercise control over membership and vote distribution, and make certain decisions in the project. Also, a specific number of tokens may determine membership.
  • Project as the primary repository of community assets. The key asset can be; cryptocurrency, NFTs, tokens, art objects (physical and digital), basically anything of value to the community. Assets may not necessarily be financial, it can be anything of value to the community.

Examples of DAO projects

It is worth remembering the very first DAO, which was called The DAO. This community was formed by creators to automate decision making in the fund. And in a short period of time, this company became one of the largest crowdfunding companies in the history of cryptocurrencies. However, a few weeks after the launch, The DAO was attacked by hackers who managed to steal more than 3.6 million Ether (ETH), the cryptocurrency into which the entire amount raised by the fund was exchanged. The incident had serious consequences for Ethereum, as by forking (creating a separate branch) the network, the developers tried to recover the stolen funds.

There are other successful DAO DApps that deserve a mention:

  • InstaDApp – an interoperability service for projects in the DeFi ecosystem.
  • UniSwap – a popular decentralized cryptocurrency exchange.
  • Compound – a debt service similar in principle to MakerDAO.
  • AAVE – a special decentralized Peer-to-Peer platform for finding borrowers and lenders.

Although the list of DeFi platforms with functional DAOs and TVLs over a billion dollars is impressive, most new DeFi projects turn out to be failures and usually lose all their initial popularity in the first six months.

Key advantages of DAO

DAO has a number of advantages that make it attractive to many people and organizations. Among them:

  • Decentralization: the DAO has no centralized management, which makes it more transparent and resistant to third-party interference;
  • Faster and cheaper decision-making: by automatically executing smart contracts, decisions can be made faster and without additional costs;
  • Security: blockchain technology ensures safe and secure transactions, making the DAO more protected from cyber-attacks and fraud;
  • Flexibility: DAO participants can quickly and easily change voting rules and procedures, making the organization more flexible and adaptive to change.

Conclusion

DAOs are a brand new way to collectively, democratically manage financial systems, but most of the projects that are emerging in the DeFi ecosystem cannot yet give confidence in the future of the idea of DAOs. That doesn’t mean you can’t invest in them, you just need to do so with caution and after careful market research.