Ben DiFrancesco, CEO of ScopeLift, suggests that the long-standing practice of designing governance tokens without value capture is becoming obsolete. He argues that token value should be viewed as a security requirement rather than an investor perk, as low market capitalization relative to protocol treasury assets creates a risk of hostile takeovers.
According to DiFrancesco, projects have spent between 4 and 10 years avoiding features like revenue sharing or fee switches due to concerns over SEC scrutiny and securities law. He notes that the initial design of many DAOs was heavily influenced by the desire for regulatory shelter and pressure from venture capital firms.
ScopeLift, which specializes in onchain governance tools, took over the Tally platform in late March 2026 following its planned wind-down. The platform, now rebranded as Cactus, currently provides governance infrastructure for more than 400 DAOs. DiFrancesco detailed these industry shifts in a blog post published on May 13, 2026.
