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Follow the Treasury
Where Modular Power Really Comes From
Vasilis P.
June 24th, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
DAOs, Grants & Governance Capital Flows in the Age of Modular Infrastructure
Code builds the protocol. Capital builds the future.
In modular crypto, governance doesn’t happen at the ballot box.
It happens through treasuries, grants, and retroactive funding.
The real Layer Zero?
Capital flow.
🔥 Vote All You Want. Capital Already Decided the Outcome.
Modular crypto stacks are politically neutral in theory.
In practice? They’re economic warzones.
You don’t need control of the protocol to control its destiny.
You just need the treasury.
From Arbitrum’s STIP incentives to Optimism’s RPGF flows,
the battle for dominance isn’t fought in GitHub.
It’s fought in funding forums, DAO proposals, and capital allocations.
🎯 Modular Governance Is Capital Allocation at Scale
DAO votes are ceremonial.
Grants are surgical.
The teams who win treasury flows will shape which AVSs get built,
which UX standards go mainstream,
and which LRTs gain validator loyalty.
This isn’t just governance.
It’s capital-weighted narrative engineering.
🧱 Modular Treasury Power Map
Treasury / DAO | What It Funds | Alpha Implication |
|---|---|---|
Optimism RPGF | Infra, restaking UX, public goods | Retro capital = future signaling |
Arbitrum STIP/LTIP | DeFi, AVSs, restaking flow | Most aggressive treasury in 2024–25 |
Celestia Grants | Modular DA layers, rollup SDKs | Sets the rules for who builds rollups, not just how |
EigenLayer DAO | AVS grants, LRT funding, UX dashboards | Funding the new trust layer |
Polygon Ecosystem | ZK infra, ID onboarding | Focused on mobile-native sovereignty tools |
Uniswap Grants | Intent interfaces, UX composability | Shaping how swaps evolve into agent flows |
Capital flow = protocol velocity.
Want to know who wins modular crypto? Follow the funding.
🛠 Capital Flow Signals for Builders, DAOs, and Allocators
Builders:
Design grant-native modular tools:
“This tool improves AVS routing” → EigenLayer + Celestia pay attention
“This kit simplifies ZK login onboarding” → Polygon + Optimism pay attentionCross-protocol pitch decks win grants. One-stack silos lose relevance.
DAOs:
Use funding as a meta-governance weapon.
Whitelist AVSs that align with treasury priorities
Create backdoor alliances via co-funded tooling grants
Launch open grant marketplaces for restaking, UX, insurance vaults
Investors:
Front-run treasury allocations:
Track public proposals BEFORE the vote
Enter ecosystems getting retroactive boosts (e.g., RPGF3 finalists)
Bet on builders who stack grants — they’re building with compounding tailwinds
⚠️ Governance Capital Risks
Risk Category | Hidden Impact | Countermeasure |
|---|---|---|
Retro Funding Misfires | Rewards hype, not utility | Only back builders with traction |
DAO Collusion | Whales loop treasury to known partners | Track multisig payout overlap |
Grants Without Guardrails | Capital gets dumped post-award | Push for milestone-based disbursements |
Governance without incentives is meaningless.
Incentives without accountability is rug territory.
🧨 In Modular Crypto, You Don’t Need to Win the Chain. You Just Need to Fund It.
Modular infra is abundant.
Code is composable.
What’s scarce?
Narrative alignment and treasury power.
The real kingmakers in modular crypto are the DAOs who shape where capital flows.
Not the validators. Not the devs. Not the voters.
Follow the treasury.
Predict the winners.
Or build the next one.
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