The DAO-focused developer Aragon has been urged by hedge firm Arca to buy back its own ANT token after a disparity between ANT’s value and Aragon’s treasury’s size was discovered. In an open letter that was released on Tuesday, Arca indicated that it planned to “work with other token holders to propose that Aragon continue the buybacks to return ANT to book value.” The letter, which was written by Alex Woodard of Arca Research, came after a period of conflict between Aragon and a group of activist investors who called for changes to the company’s management.
When Aragon barred numerous members from its Discord chat platform for repeatedly “spamming” with inquiries regarding the project’s finances, the conflict between the two sides intensified last week. Aragon creates tools for other DAOs to utilize in their operations. It is structured partly as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) and partially as a Swiss non-profit. The group, which also has authority over a multimillion-dollar treasury, has created ANT as a governance token for its members.
Since the dispute between the two parties began, the price of the ANT token has fluctuated, and on Monday this week it hit its lowest point in more than a month. Arca’s Woodard said this week that removing important community members from Aragon’s Discord service “strikes me as a massive step in the wrong direction.” He said that similar transparency concerns might result in team members departing in 2021 due to the activities becoming a trend for Aragon.
Woodard underlined that the Aragon project’s leadership needed to understand the project’s financial worth. The research analyst said that “a [token] buyback is the best course of action to achieve everyone’s goals and provide all forms of value.” The situation between the two parties is still tight, but Aragon has not yet reacted to Arca’s appeal. How this disagreement will be handled and if Aragon will accept the repurchase request put up by Arca and other token holders are still up in the air.
