Compound Foundation faces Aave-style DAO drama after misappropriation accusation

The Compound Foundation is facing a misappropriation accusation from a delegate who went public with the claim that the Foundation made a move to seize control of the $52 million spending program and treasury by quietly converting 8.42 million DAI from reserves into COMP tokens. 

The red flags in the post were the secrecy around the moves and a misrepresentation of the holdings as “liquid” DAI, even though the funds had already been swapped into COMP. 

The accusation against Compound 

The Compound governance dispute traces back to what Ugurmersin claims is the misuse of around 8.42 million DAI of DAO reserves handed to the Foundation under the strict stipulations in Proposal 536: 

• The money was to back protocol operations only
• It was meant to stay entirely DAO-owned
• It was restricted from any speculative trading
• And it should not be used to bankroll the Foundation’s own costs

Ugurmersin is citing blockchain records as evidence that the funds were used for unauthorized purposes. 

The 8.42 million DAI were allegedly swapped for 344,780 COMP on an exchange, returned and then delegated to the Foundation’s own voting address by the signers of the treasury multisig. 

According to Ugurmersin, the COMP tokens were returned to the Safe 58 minutes before voting closed on Proposals 580 and 582.

Ugurmersin alleges that the Foundation used those tokens to sway the governance process, shifting nearly all DAO funds under the Treasury Management Committee (TMC), a body it helps sign for, and pushed through a $52 million V4 program that benefits the Foundation itself. 

The Compound Growth Working Group, security firm Certora and auditor ChainSecurity were all named as supporters of the moves.

Cryptopolitan could not independently verify the transaction claims, and the Foundation has not responded to the accusation. 

The delegate invited the Foundation, the working group’s delegates PGov and AranaDigital, ChainSecurity and Certora to reply.

Leading lending protocols face governance drama

The Compound accusation stoked comparisons with the Aave governance fight that started in December 2025 after delegates flagged how a proposed CoWSwap integration would redirect swap fees from the Aave DAO treasury. 

The “Aave Will Win” proposal that was meant to end the dispute did not close cleanly either. 

Aave Chain Initiative founder Marc Zeller alleged that addresses linked to Aave Labs had swayed the outcome after the proposal cleared its first governance hurdle with 52.58% approval, as Cryptopolitan reported at the time. 

Where Compound stands as the dispute opens

Compound is a smaller target than Aave. DefiLlama lists Compound Finance with about $1.6 billion in total value locked and a $230 million market capitalization, with COMP trading near $23 and an on-chain treasury of roughly $8.26 million. Aave V3, by comparison, holds close to $18 billion.

The parties named in the post have not addressed the misappropriation claim directly, but the working group has recently defended how Compound runs its votes. In a September 24 forum reply on a separate security-provider renewal, AranaDigital argued that Snapshot votes are a legitimate way for delegates to decide matters that need no on-chain transaction, calling the practice an operational efficiency rather than a lesser class of vote. 

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