THE END OF THE FOUNDATION ERA IN CRYPTO

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

Crypto foundations, once useful for navigating early regulatory hostility, now impose misaligned incentives, legal constraints, and centralizing inefficiencies. With emerging “control‐based” regulatory frameworks, developer companies can more effectively deploy capital, attract talent, and align with tokenholders via tools like revenue sharing, milestone vesting, and contractual safeguards. Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Associations (DUNAs) and on‐chain governance tooling (BORGs) offer lightweight, transparent alternatives to foundation structures by enabling DAOs to contract and enforce obligations without opaque intermediaries. As a result, companies and DAOs can achieve true decentralization, accountability, and scale without relying on slow nonprofit foundations.