Background
In November 2024, the Stargate DAO approved a 12-month operating budget of $6.4M, denominated in STG tokens, to fund the work of the Stargate Foundation through to October 2025.
As of July 2025, $3,248,057 has been spent by the Foundation, approximately 51% of the allocated budget. However, due to STG’s price depreciation, the Foundation’s remaining runway is reduced.
While we anticipated the original budget would sustain us through October, this drawdown has led us to seek a modest top-up.
Proposal
This proposal is to top up the Foundation’s operational budget with an additional:
$2,000,000 USDC, and 10,000,000 STG.
These funds will allow the Foundation to continue supporting the protocol through the end of the year and into early 2026. We expect this top-up will extend our runway beyond the original October 2025 timeline. A new budget proposal — synced with the calendar year — will be submitted in December 2025, with refreshed forecasts and allocations for 2026.
Use of Funds
The funds will be used for the same categories outlined in the November 2024 proposal, including but not limited to:
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Team expansion and retention (technical & non-technical)
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Technical infrastructure and audit costs
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Legal, compliance, and international structuring
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Protocol deployment operations and Hydra expansion
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Community engagement and marketing initiatives
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Administrative and tooling costs
All funds will be transferred to the designated Foundation multisig and used solely to support the activities above.
Execution
Upon approval, we request that the funds be transferred from the Ethereum DAO Multisig to the Stargate Foundation Multisig.
Summary
The Stargate Foundation continues to play a critical role in advancing the protocol’s mission, executing DAO mandates, and scaling Stargate’s presence across ecosystems. This top-up ensures continuity of operations amidst market volatility and supports our ability to execute at a high level across the months ahead.
We appreciate the DAO’s ongoing support and will return in December with a full budget update for 2026.