A DeFi protocol just proposed going private as its stewards believe the current DAO structure is creating a hurdle to close institutional deals.

Across Protocol’s ACX token jumped 80% to $0.06 on Thursday after the team behind the cross-chain bridging platform published a ‘temp-check’ proposal to dissolve its token structure and convert into a traditional U.S. C-corporation.

“As Across deepens our work with institutional and enterprise partners, the token and DAO structure has materially impacted our ability to close partnerships and integrations,” the proposal reads. “Transitioning to a traditional legal entity would meaningfully improve our ability to enter enforceable contracts, structure revenue agreements, and deliver more value to Across stakeholders.”

“At current ACX valuations, we believe the Across Protocol is significantly undervalued. The proposed structure gives us an opportunity to explore new ways to foster growth while acting in the best interests of the broader Across community.”

A temp check in DeFi governance is essentially a non-binding poll that gauges community sentiment before a formal vote. It lets the team see whether there’s enough support to proceed as an official governance proposal, which is then voted on by token holders.

The move would give token holders two choices: exchange their ACX for equity in the new company, or sell their tokens for USDC at $0.04375, a 25% premium to the previous 30-day average trading price.

The token was trading at roughly $0.033 before the proposal went live. The immediate surge to $0.07 before settling around $0.06 reflects the market pricing in the buyout floor, though the current price already sits well above the proposed $0.04375 buyout, suggesting traders are betting on either a higher offer or that the equity option is worth more.

In comparison, BTC is currently trading flat, according to CoinDesk market data. The CoinDesk 20, which measures the performance of the largest digital assets, is also trading flat.

The mechanics are straightforward. A new entity called “AcrossCo” would hold all protocol IP and manage development. Token holders above 5 million ACX could convert to equity directly.

Smaller holders could access equity through a no-fee SPV structure with a minimum of 250,000 ACX, roughly $10,000 at current prices. Everyone gets treated equally at a 1:1 token-to-share ratio regardless of size.

Those who don’t want equity get the USDC buyout at the 25% premium. The buyout window would open within three months of the proposal passing and stay open for six months, funded by the protocol’s liquid assets.

A community call is scheduled for March 18, formal discussion runs through March 25, and a Snapshot vote would follow on March 26. If it passes, the conversion would begin in early April.

Is the DAO vision dead?

DeFi proponents spent years arguing that tokens and DAOs were superior to traditional corporate structures for building decentralized infrastructure.

Across is one of the first protocols to publicly argue the opposite, that the token structure is actively holding back growth and that a C-corp would deliver more value to the same stakeholders.

Risk Labs acknowledged the token has been “significantly undervalued” and described the proposal as a chance to “double down on Across” through a structure that institutional partners actually understand.

The 24-hour trading volume of $149 million is roughly 3.5 times the token’s market cap, reflecting the intensity of speculative interest around the proposal.

Whether that interest translates into support for the conversion or simply a trade on the buyout premium is what the next two weeks of governance discussion will determine.

Blockchain ecosystems are losing developers across the board while artificial intelligence projects dominate growth on GitHub, the world’s largest platform for hosting and collaborating on software code.

Weekly crypto commits (publishing new code) to repositories have fallen roughly 75% since early 2025, dropping from about 850,000 to 210,000, while active developers declined 56% to around 4,600, according to data from analytics platform Artemis.

Repositories track where developers are writing code, building tools and launching new projects, they offer one of the clearest signals of where software innovation is happening.

The contraction stands in stark contrast to the broader software ecosystem. GitHub added about 36 million developers in 2025 alone, bringing its global base to more than 180 million, with platform-wide commits rising roughly 25% year over year, according to GitHub’s Octoverse report.

Much of that growth is flowing into artificial intelligence. GitHub now hosts more than 4.3 million AI-related repositories.

The number of repos importing large language model software development kits surged about 178% to more than 1.1 million over the past year, while generative AI projects now attract more than 1 million monthly contributors.

The numbers suggest developers are reallocating time toward AI infrastructure rather than blockchain.

Repositories using Jupyter Notebooks, commonly used for machine learning experimentation, grew about 75%. Dockerfile repositories used to deploy AI applications jumped roughly 120%. TypeScript, the programming language underpinning much of the modern web and many AI tools, overtook Python and JavaScript to become GitHub’s most-used language after gaining more than 1 million contributors in a single year.

Within crypto, the decline is broad but uneven.

Ethereum’s weekly active developer count fell 34% over three months to 2,811, according to Artemis. Solana shed 40% to 942 developers. Base, the Coinbase-incubated Layer 2 that was among 2024’s fastest-growing ecosystems, dropped 52% to 378 developers.

Newer chains that attracted speculative interest during last year’s bull market are faring worst. Aptos lost about 60% of its developers, BNB Chain commits plunged 85%, and Celo fell 52%.

The only category of meaningful size still growing is wallet infrastructure, which rose about 6% to 308 weekly active developers.

Still, the data suggests crypto may be consolidating rather than collapsing.

Electric Capital’s annual developer report shows the sector peaked at roughly 31,000 monthly active developers in 2022 before falling to about 23,600 in 2024, with estimates suggesting further declines to around 18,000 by mid-2025.

The composition of the remaining workforce is also changing. Developers with more than two years of tenure grew about 27% year over year and now produce roughly 70% of commits. The exodus is concentrated among part-time contributors and newcomers with less than 12 months of experience, a group that declined 58% in one tracking period.

Crypto development has historically followed market cycles, and activity could rebound if another bull market draws builders back.

But previous downturns offered fewer alternatives for displaced developers. In 2025, generative AI represents a rapidly expanding frontier with deep venture funding and immediate commercial demand, raising the question of whether this cycle’s talent drain proves harder to reverse.

Stablecoin yield providers will inject more capital into the US banking system, argues White House Council of Advisors for Digital Assets executive director Patrick Witt, amid debate over whether stablecoin yields will draw deposits away. 

“Foreigners exchange local currency for stablecoins from a US-based issuer,” Witt said in an X post on Wednesday, adding that “global demand for USD is massive.”

“That is net new capital entering the American banking system,” Witt said. Most US stablecoin issuers hold US dollars or US Treasuries to back each token issued.

Banking and crypto industry clash over stablecoin yields

The US dollar index, which tracks the strength of the dollar against a basket of major currencies, fell to its lowest level in four years on Jan. 28, at 95.818, according to TradingView. It has since recovered 3.80% to 99.468.

It comes as the debate between crypto firms and US banks continues to heat up over the US CLARITY Act, aimed at providing the industry with clearer regulation, over whether allowing stablecoin yields will pull deposits out of traditional banks.

Major US bank Standard Chartered recently estimated in a research note that increasing stablecoin adoption could lead to US bank deposits decreasing “by one-third of stablecoin market cap.”

However, Witt argued that what’s often “lost” in the GENIUS and CLARITY Act discussions is how GENIUS-compliant stablecoins “will actually lead to deposit inflows.” 

Community banking exec causes controversy in crypto industry

On Friday, the Independent Bankers Association of Texas president Christopher Williston said that making concessions in the CLARITY Act debate would risk harming local lending and economic production, prompting backlash from the crypto community. 

“It’s simply impossible to roll over in the fight for liquidity that powers the economies of the places we call home,” he said.

Related: Republican opposition to CBDC could hold up housing affordability bill

Zero Knowledge Consulting founder Austin Campbell responded that “If community banks and crypto can’t find a way to work together, we already know who the winners are… It is the big banks.”

Witt also chimed in on this debate, saying it “feels like I’m watching an arsonist threaten to burn down their own home.”

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