Aragon Association dissolves, tells holders to redeem ANT for ETH

• The Aragon Association is the steward of the Aragon (ANT) treasury and assets.
• Token holders have until November 2, 2024 to redeem their ANT tokens for Ether (ETH).
• 86,343 ETH from the treasury has been deployed for the redemptions, with the rate at 0.0025376 ETH per ANT.

Aragon (ANT) holders will have to redeem their tokens for Ethereum (ETH) for the next twelve months, the Aragon Association, a Swiss-based nonprofit supporting the project’s development, has announced. The association is also the legal steward of the ANT treasury and assets.

What is happening with Aragon (ANT)?

The Aragon Association revealed it was dissolving amid plans to continue the project’s development in a new “product-focused structure.”

According to an update from the company, the pivot in focus means there’s no point for users to continue holding ANT. The association  has deployed 86,343 ETH for the process, which accounts for 87% of the treasury and will be sent to a smart contract that will allow autonomous redemptions at the rate of 0.0025376 ETH per ANT.

“At the end of the redemption period, the redeemed ANT will be burnt and any remaining ETH will be sent to the Ethereum address of the new product-focused structure,” the Aragon Association said in their announcement published on November 2.

Token holders have until November 2, 2024 at 23:59 UTC to complete the transition, after which the option will no longer be available.

New chapter for Aragon

Aragon, which seeks to offer a user-friendly tech stack for decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs), raised 275,000 ETH (approximately $25m at the time) in 2017. ANT also envisioned a token that would power Aragon Network’s dispute resolution system.

But while there were successes such as the Aragon Nest grants program and launch of the DAO framework aragonOS, the project faced key challenges in many other goals. For instance, they failed to create a much hyped court system for DAOs and an appchain on the Cosmos blockchain.

The nonprofit also failed to galvanise its efforts, despite the bull market seeing the treasury grow significantly. According to their announcement, “bureaucratic complexity, misaligned stakeholders, and failed attempts at modifying the governance increased tensions within the project.”

An effort to vest the treasury’s control to ANT holders failed as users, partners and developers held only a fraction of the ANT supply. This meant a “volatile gap existed between the value of the treasury and the token market cap,” an outlook that jeopardised Aragon’s mission.

A post on X noted the project needs a total reset.

The fresh start consists of:

• ANT <> ETH redemption targeting 100% of ANT supply, lasting 1 year. There is no longer purpose to hold ANT
• @AragonAssoc dissolved
• A new product-focused structure overseen by industry leaders

All to continue building the best DAO tooling

— Aragon 🦅 (@AragonProject) November 2, 2023

The Aragon token price was $4.58 on Friday, down more than 68% from its all-time high of $14.64 reached in April, 2021.