GSR report reveals DAOs hold 70% of treasury in native tokens, creating dangerous feedback loops

Imagine running a company where 70% of your cash reserves are held in your own stock. Every time the stock drops, your ability to pay employees, fund development, and keep the lights on drops right alongside it. Now imagine that when you finally try to sell some of that stock to cover bills, the act of selling pushes the price down further. That’s not a hypothetical. It’s how most DAOs operate their treasuries, according to a new report from GSR Markets. The concentration problem GSR, a London-based digital asset trading and market-making firm, published findings on August 7 showing that more than 70% of DAO treasury assets sit in each project’s own native token. The remaining 30% is spread across stablecoins, ETH, Bitcoin, and other holdings. That ratio is actually an improvement from 2023, when the concentration figure was closer to 82% among top DAOs. DAO treasuries collectively surpassed $26 billion as of Q1 2026. That sounds like a healthy war chest until you realize the vast majority of it is denominated in tokens whose value can swing 30-50% in a matter of weeks. The core issue is what GSR describes as procyclical dynamics. When a token’s price falls, three things happen sim...