Overview
- The ENS DAO vote, which completed on August 11, 2026, turned the ENS Foundation into a staffed legal entity governed by a five-member board led by executive director Alexander Urbelis.
- Tokenholders approved a one-time transfer of 1 million ENS tokens to a Foundation Safe to fund employee pay under multiyear vesting with strict limits on voting, transfer, and use.
- Administrative control of the Endowment Safe, holding roughly $65 million in ETH and stablecoins, moved under foundation signers but remains subject to a default nine-day timelock and Security Council cancellation rights.
- Core protocol powers including smart-contract upgrades, registration prices, fee setting, the root key and board appointment or removal remain controlled by ENS tokenholders and on-chain governance.
- The foundation gains legal standing to hold trademarks, hire staff, sign contracts and pursue formal recognition of .ens at ICANN, which should let ENS engage standards bodies and courts more directly while ENS Labs stays a separate Singapore entity and existing grants continue.