DAO Fundraising and Web3 Business Finance

Web3 organisations can raise capital through token sales, DAO treasuries, and DeFi protocols. Here is how decentralised fundraising actually works in 2026.

Web3 has created genuinely new fundraising models that were impossible before blockchain: public token sales accessible globally, DAO treasury grants for community-aligned projects, and protocol-native funding through liquidity bootstrapping. Each has different risk/return profiles and regulatory implications.

Token Sales: The ICO Evolution

• ICOs (2017): largely unregulated, many fraudulent, significant regulatory backlash
• IDOs (Initial DEX Offerings): raise on a DEX, immediate liquidity, better than centralised ICO
• IEOs (Initial Exchange Offerings): raise through an exchange — more vetting, higher fees
• SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens): venture-style investment for accredited investors
• Retroactive airdrops: reward early users after product launch — avoids securities issues

DAO Treasury Grants

• Major protocol DAOs distribute hundreds of millions in grants annually: Uniswap, Aave, Arbitrum
• Application process: proposal, community discussion, vote — public and transparent
• Grant sizes: $5k-$500k for development work, research, and integrations
• No equity given up — purely grant-based with deliverable milestones
• Best for: open-source development, research, and ecosystem tooling

DeFi Protocol Revenue as Business Model

Protocol fees are the DeFi business model: Uniswap earns 0.05-1% on every swap, accruing to the protocol treasury and token holders. Building a protocol with genuine utility creates compounding treasury growth that can be used to fund development, marketing, and grants. Steyble's protocol fee model directs a portion of trading fees to the treasury, funding continuous development without external fundraising dependence.