Original Title: What Across Protocol's going private proposal really means for its token holders and DAO
Original Author: Jacquelyn Melinek
Original Compilation: Ken, ChainCatcher
Today, as many traditional companies delve deeper into the field of tokenization, Across Protocol is proposing a different path to its token holders: to become a private company by buying out their tokens, or to exchange them for equity.
@AcrossProtocol co-founder @hal2001 Lambur stated on the @_TalkingTokens podcast by @TokenRelations: "The protocol is seeking to go private because its DAO structure is hindering its development."
"I have always been a token maximalist," said Lambur. "We launched the Across token very early, with an extremely low market cap and a very broad airdrop, primarily because we wanted to build publicly and accumulate value for our community and users. But I think the macro environment has changed."
Across Protocol connects multiple major networks (including @Ethereum and @Solana), allowing users to bridge or swap tokens across chains. To date, it has processed over $35 billion in transaction volume.
But as institutional and corporate demand grows, its structure has proven to be a bottleneck. Lambur believes the protocol "would develop better with a more traditional structure."
To our knowledge, Across's proposal to privatize itself is a rare move, but it comes as the industry begins to acknowledge that a DAO is a difficult organizational structure to operate.
In August 2025, when @UniswapFND proposed creating the legal entity DUNI, the protocol stated that a formal structure would bring more "capability and greater autonomy."
Earlier this week, @Aave founder @StaniKulechov wrote about the friction involved in operating a DAO. "As we have been operating, DAOs are exceptionally difficult, and this difficulty is different from the difficulty of building complex things. The difficulty lies in the fact that you are fighting against your own organizational structure every day."
For Across, Risk Labs is the foundation and legal entity "currently responsible for signing contracts" and building the protocol, but Lambur said the DAO is separate from it.
The protocol currently operates under a "classic token structure," meaning you have an on-chain protocol and a legal entity that maintains a loose cooperative relationship with the protocol. But Lambur said they are two separate structures. "This is one of the reasons people criticize the DAO model, and in essence, we are trying to unify these two," he added.
Before announcing the proposal on Wednesday, Across had been considering this move for months. "It's this situation: you look at the macro environment, see how undervalued these tokens are, and then look at the various frictions you face when trying to conduct business in a more traditional way."
The proposal offers token holders two options: exchange their ACX tokens for equity in AcrossCo., or exchange them for USDC at a one-month average market price. Users holding a large number of tokens can directly exchange them for shares, while those holding a small number of tokens can do so through a special purpose vehicle with no handling fees.
Lambur acknowledged that one of the biggest negatives of the proposal is the limitation on how many token holders can transfer their holdings into a potential S-corp through equity. "This is based on U.S. securities laws, and we have designed it to be as inclusive as humanly possible."
"A U.S. C-corp cannot have 5,000 entries on its cap table," so some consolidation is necessary, he pointed out. Nevertheless, he remains optimistic that this will work.
Before releasing a Snapshot vote or decision to the community, the proposal will have a two-week discussion period.
