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The $ENS token is a governance token used to govern key components of the ENS protocol
Overview
The ENS DAO was created on November 8, 2021 with the launch of the $ENS token.
$ENS is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain.
Holders of $ENS can delegate $ENS tokens to Delegates. Delegates use delegated $ENS tokens to submit and vote on proposals related to changes to the ENS protocol and spending from the DAO’s treasury.
A total of 100m $ENS tokens were minted, with each token representing a single vote in the DAO.
$ENS tokens can be purchased on centralized and decentralized exchanges.
The contract address for the $ENS Token is 0xC18360217D8F7Ab5e7c516566761Ea12Ce7F9D72.
The ENS DAO is represented in the real world by the ENS Foundation, a foundation based in the Cayman Islands.
$ENS Distribution
The initial distribution of the $ENS token is detailed in this post from November 2, 2021.
25% (25m $ENS) was allocated to core contributors, ecosystem partners, and community members. Tokens for core contributors at the time of the DAO’s launch and launch advisors have a four year lock-up and vesting schedule.
25% (25m $ENS) was available to be claimed as an airdrop by addresses that had been the registrant of a .eth second-level domain at any point in time before the snapshot was taken on midnight October 31, 2021.
50% (50m $ENS) was distributed to the DAO’s treasury. 10% of this distribution was available at launch. The remaining $ENS tokens distributed to the DAO treasury are unlocked linearly over 4 years, from November 8, 2021.
$ENS Token Launch & Airdrop
Eligible addresses were able to claim an airdrop of $ENS tokens during a defined airdrop window, based on various eligibility criteria including:
- The total time of an address’s past .eth registration
- The total time of an address’s future .eth registration, capped at 8 years
- A 2x multiplier for addresses that set their Primary ENS Name
Over 137k addresses were eligible to claim an airdrop during the airdrop window. The airdrop window was open from 8 November 2021 until 4 May 2022.
19.6 million $ENS tokens were claimed during the airdrop window by 103k eligible addresses.
The remaining 5.4m $ENS tokens were transferred to the DAO treasury following the closure of the airdrop window.
$ENS in the ENS DAO Treasury
A total of 50m $ENS, or 50% of the total supply of $ENS, was allocated to the ENS DAO treasury when the $ENS token was launched on November 8, 2021.
10% of the 50m $ENS allocated was available on launch. A total of 5m $ENS was claimed from the ENS Timelock contract by the DAO wallet (wallet.ensdao.eth) in this transaction.
The remaining 45m $ENS allocated to the DAO will unlock linearly over 4 years. This amount can be claimed by the DAO at any time by passing an executable proposal to initiate the claim.
There have been two major transfers of $ENS tokens into the ENS DAO wallet:
- November 1, 2021: Claiming 5m $ENS available from the ENS DAO treasury allocation
- May 5, 2022: Sweeping 5.3m $ENS unclaimed in the airdrop
Date | $ENS | Action | Cumulative Total of $ENS |
November 1, 2021 | Claim 10% of the 50m $ENS allocated to the DAO treasury at launch | 5,000,000 | |
May 5, 2022 | Sweep $ENS that was unclaimed in the airdrop back to the DAO treasury | 10,375,000 |
Minting $ENS
As the owner of the $ENS token contract, the ENS DAO has the right to mint up to 2% of the current total supply, once a year. After such an action is initiated, the DAO must wait a year before it can initiate the action again. If the DAO mints any amount up to 2% of the current total supply for any reason, that will be the only amount minted for 365 days, whether it is 0.1% or any number up to 2%.