Cardano x Draper Dragon: Orion Fund
7 of 7 committee members voted
- Ace Alliance71aa5b3a…8f04YesActive · term ends epoch 726Rationale
Ace Alliance finds the proposed "Cardano x Draper Dragon: Orion Fund" Treasury Withdrawal Governance Action Constitutional. Rationales are archived at https://github.com/ace-alliance/ace-voting/
A PDF version of this rationale is also made available.
This Treasury Withdrawal Governance Action (TWGA) requests 50,000,000 ada (approximately 15M USD at an assumed 0.30 USD/ADA) to fund Tranche One of the Draper Dragon Orion Fund, a multi-year ecosystem investment fund managed by Draper Dragon Orion GP, LLC. Capital flows through Arouet Holdings, an ownerless Cayman Islands entity structured as the limited partner, with the stated objective of returning capital to the Cardano Treasury.
Under Article II.6, governance actions must use a standardized format, include an immutable URL and hash, and provide sufficient rationale. This TWGA satisfies these requirements by utilizing an immutable IPFS URL (ipfs://QmPXYnQ65EuKCVPrWfDqFZmiF8Y4PzxZ87XrGs6UaMkNru) and verified hash. The proposal provides a title, abstract, motivation, rationale, and supporting references including a PDF copy and forum discussion.
Under Article II.7, TWGAs must meet six specific requirements. This TWGA satisfies all of them:
- II.7.1 (Terms): Specifies the purpose (ecosystem investment fund), the period (Tranche One commencing upon receipt of funds, with a 6–8 year fund term), relevant costs broken down across Direct Investments (~10.75M USD), Growth Capital (~1.9M USD), Startup Acceleration (~1M USD), and Direct Fund Operational Expenses (~1.35M USD). Refund circumstances are addressed: if the Orion Fund does not commence operations, unused capital is returned to Arouet Holdings for repayment to the Treasury.
- II.7.2 (Disclosure): The proposal confirms that neither Arouet Holdings as proposer nor the Orion Fund has received funds from the Treasury within the past two years.
- II.7.3 (Net Change Limit): A Net Change Limit must be set and not exceeded. The 350M ADA NCL is treated as set (see Precedent). With 10,142,000 ada enacted to date under this NCL (Amaru), the remaining balance is 339,858,000 ada. This 50,000,000 ada request does not exceed that balance.
- II.7.4 (Audits): The proposal allocates 300,000 USD for audit, legal, tax, and compliance as Customary Fund Expenses. The proposal describes quarterly reporting to the Community, including disclosed metrics and observable ecosystem impact assessments. These provisions satisfy the requirement for periodic independent oversight of fund usage.
- II.7.5 (Administrators): The proposal designates Arouet Holdings as the receiving entity, with a Community-appointed director as set out in Section 9 of the proposal. Additionally, the proposal names the Cardano Foundation as the constitutionally mandated administrator. The General Partner (Draper Dragon Orion GP, LLC) manages fund operations.
- II.7.6 (Custody): The proposal structures fund flows through Arouet Holdings, an ownerless legal entity with a Community-appointed director, prior to deployment into the Orion Fund. The distribution waterfall in Section 4.4 ensures the Treasury is fully repaid all capital allocated towards Ecosystem Support & Investments before any profit participation by the General Partner occurs.
Ace Alliance finds the proposed "Cardano x Draper Dragon: Orion Fund" Treasury Withdrawal Governance Action Constitutional.
- Cardano Curia84feba94…6bd5YesActive · term ends epoch 799Rationale
We, Cardano Curia, approve this Treasury Withdrawal (Tranche One, 50,000,000 ADA) for the Cardano x Draper Dragon: Orion Fund because the proposal is tranche-scoped, provides a defined use-of-funds and operating framework, includes transparency and reporting commitments, and sets out repayment mechanics intended to return capital (and a share of profits) back to the Cardano Treasury over time.
What is being proposed
This governance action is a Treasury Withdrawal requesting approval of Tranche One (50,000,000 ADA) to launch the Draper Dragon Orion Fund, a multi-year, tranche-based ecosystem investment fund. The proposal explicitly states that this vote approves only the first tranche and that any subsequent tranches require separate governance actions and community approval.
Why this is approvable under the Treasury Withdrawal requirements
The proposal provides the core Treasury Withdrawal terms needed for an informed on-chain decision:
Purpose and scope: The withdrawal’s purpose is clearly stated: to capitalize an ecosystem investment vehicle designed to support Cardano-native and Cardano-integrated companies and to grow on-chain usage, with an explicit intent to return value to the Treasury over time.
Delivery period and plan: The proposal ties Tranche One to year-one launch activities within a longer fund term, while maintaining governance control by making future capital access contingent on later votes.
Costs and expenses: The proposal breaks down intended allocations (direct investments, growth capital, startup acceleration/talent pipeline) and includes fund operational expenses (including audit, legal, tax, and compliance costs), with unused amounts intended to roll into investments (or otherwise remain within the described constraints).
Refund / non-commencement scenario: The proposal describes a refund scenario if the fund does not commence operations after the withdrawal has been enacted.
Prior treasury funding disclosure: The proposal states that neither the proposer (Arouet Holdings) nor the Orion Fund has received Treasury funds within the past two years.
Oversight, transparency, and auditability: The proposal commits to public-facing reporting (a KPI dashboard and quarterly fund reporting) and describes an LP-facing structure intended to route distributions back toward the Treasury via Arouet Holdings, including a distribution waterfall that prioritizes repayment of Treasury-attributed ecosystem support and investment capital before GP profit participation.
Why the tranche structure matters
A key governance strength of this proposal is that it does not ask voters to approve the full multi-year funding plan upfront. It requests only the minimum initial capital to begin operations and demonstrate execution and reporting. This preserves community leverage and enables future tranche decisions to be made with evidence from real deployment and reporting.
What we will monitor after approval
If enacted, we will monitor (a) publication of the fund’s public dashboard and quarterly reports, (b) evidence that treasury-attributed capital deployment and expenses match the described categories, and (c) documentation of how distributions are routed back to the Treasury in practice as exits occur.
For the reasons above, we, Cardano Curia, approve this Treasury Withdrawal as a well-scoped first tranche request with disclosed allocation categories, defined governance control via tranche-based approvals, and an intended treasury-aligned return structure supported by transparency and reporting commitments. Future tranches should be evaluated independently based on published reporting, observable ecosystem impact, and demonstrated operational discipline.
- Cardano Japan Council725d4d44…7b31YesExpired · term ends epoch 653Rationale
We consider this governance action to be constitutional.
This proposal is a Governance Action involving a withdrawal of funds from the Cardano Treasury; specifically, it is a Treasury Withdrawal governance action aimed at allocating capital to a venture capital-style fund (the Orion Fund). The main text of the proposal includes supplementary documents and supporting materials in accordance with Article 2, Section 6, Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Constitution. Additionally, regarding Article 2, Section 7, Paragraphs 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 of the Constitution, details regarding the use of funds, implementation period, cost framework, refund conditions, supervisory body, and audit and management systems are provided. Furthermore, regarding Article 2, Section 7, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution, the Net Change Limit (Epoch 613 to Epoch 713) (gov_action1m3x...4jsr7q) is currently in effect, and no conflict with this limit has been identified in relation to this proposal. Therefore, as this proposal meets the necessary disclosure and structural requirements for a Treasury Withdrawal governance action and no conflict has been identified in light of constitutional requirements, it is deemed constitutional.
For the reasons stated above, we determine that it is constitutional.
- Eastern Cardano Council2ea7a78e…10ecYesActive · term ends epoch 726Rationale
We have determined that this treasury withdrawal governance action is constitutional.
The governance action with ID "gov_action13qr...qfu32x" and title "Cardano x Draper Dragon: Orion Fund" is a Treasury Withdrawal, and is therefore subject to the following sections and guardrails in the Cardano Constitution.
ARTICLE II, Section 6 of the Cardano Constitution states that governance actions must follow a standardized and legible format, including a URL hosting an immutable document and a corresponding hash, and must provide sufficient rationale including a title, abstract, justification, and supporting materials.
This governance action includes a valid URL and hash, which matches the hash of the off-chain documentation referenced. The rationale also meets the minimum content specified in this section.
ARTICLE II, Section 7 specifies that Treasury Withdrawal governance actions must include the following:
1. Purpose, Delivery Period, Costs, and Refund Conditions
This governance action specifies:
- The purpose of the withdrawal is "for investment into the Orion Fund"
- The period for delivery is stated as "for Tranche One in the first year of the overall plan"
- The relevant costs and expenses under section 1.2, which is titled "Intended Use of Capital for Tranche One"
- The circumstances under which funds may be refunded to the Cardano Treasury as "for whatever reason, the Orion Fund does not commence operations after the withdrawal has been enacted."
These elements fulfil the requirements of Article II, Section 7(1).
2. Prior Treasury Funding Disclosure
ARTICLE II, Section 7(2) requires disclosure of whether the prospective recipient has received ada from the Cardano Treasury within the last 24 months.
This governance action states that "Neither Arouet Holdings as proposer nor the Orion Fund has received funds from the Treasury within the past 2 years." This fulfils the requirement of ARTICLE II, Section 7(2).
3. Net Change Limit (NCL)
ARTICLE II, Section 7(3) requires that Treasury Withdrawals must not exceed the Net Change Limit.
The Net Change Limit in effect at the time of submission of this vote on-chain is the governance action with ID "gov_action1m3x...4jsr7q".
- A. Current NCL Amount: 350000000 ada
- B. Current NCL Time Period: Epoch 613 to Epoch 713 (Inclusive)
- C. Total of Treasury Withdrawals within the Current NCL Time Period: 10142000 ada
- D. Amount of this Treasury Withdrawal: 50000000 ada
- E. "C" plus "D" = 60142000 ada
- F. "A" minus "E" = 289858000 ada
As the value of "F" is greater than or equal to zero, this governance action fulfils the NCL requirement.
4. Audit Allocation and Oversight Metrics
ARTICLE II, Section 7(4) states "Treasury Withdrawals actions shall require an allocation of ada as a part of such funding request to cover the cost of periodic independent audits and the implementation of oversight metrics as to the use of such ada."
While this governance action does not explicitly state that "an allocation of ada" will be used for "periodic independent audits", it does refer to oversight under Section 6 "Transparency, Oversight & Reporting" including "A public dashboard built by Draper Dragon is expected to display real-time ecosystem KPIs" and "a public Quarterly Fund Report". The majority of ECC members believe that this sufficiently fulfils the requirements of ARTICLE II, Section 7(4).
5. Designated Administrators
ARTICLE II, Section 7(5) requires that one or more administrators are designated to monitor fund usage and ensure deliverables are achieved.
This governance action states that the "Cardano Foundation has orchestrated the setup of Arouet Holdings and will act as administrator for purposes of the Cardano constitution", which fulfils this requirement.
6. Fund Management Requirements
ARTICLE II, Section 7(6) states "Any ada received from a Cardano Blockchain treasury withdrawal, so long as such ada is being held by an administrator prior to further disbursement to the Treasury Withdrawal Recipient, must be kept in one or more separate accounts that can be audited by the Cardano Community, and such accounts shall not be delegated to an SPO but must be delegated to the predefined abstain voting option."
This governance action specifies the following withdrawal address, which at the time of assessment is not delegated to an SPO and is delegated to the auto abstain voting option:
- stake1u99m2kxsvdwlulg4l6qwjrpvayzrzwk0fugnvu3uklfqtws257z0g
Finally, the guardrails that require consideration for this governance action are TREASURY-01a, TREASURY-02a, and TREASURY-03a. These are addressed as follows:
- TREASURY-01a - The net change limit with governance action ID "gov_action1m3x...4jsr7q" is currently in effect, after being "agreed by the DReps via an on-chain governance action with a threshold of greater than 50% of the active voting stake".
- TREASURY-02a - As per the above assessment, this treasury withdrawal does not exceed the current Net Change Limit.
- TREASURY-03a - This treasury withdrawal is denominated in ada.We therefore find this governance action Constitutional.
This governance action sufficiently fulfils the criteria specified for treasury withdrawals in the Cardano Constitution, so is deemed constitutional.
- KtorZ64f97568…3a49YesExpired · term ends epoch 653Rationale
Ok
An extensive proposal which outlines a multi-year budget, even though requesting in this particular action only a first payout.
The terms of the withdrawal are explicit, and the administrator structure well detailed. Furthermore, the proposal makes room for a direct community oversight with an "inside" director and transparent reporting.
- Phil_uplc68bb0b42…8746YesActive · term ends epoch 799Rationale
- Tingvard646d1b3a…be43YesActive · term ends epoch 726Rationale
Tingvard judges the “Cardano x Draper Dragon: Orion Fund” treasury withdrawal governance action constitutional.
This governance action is submitted as a Treasury Withdrawals action under Article II, § 7 of the Cardano Constitution. Treasury withdrawals must therefore satisfy the general governance action requirements in Article II, § 6 as well as the additional requirements in Article II, § 7, 1 through 6.
The action satisfies Article II, § 6, 1 and 2. The proposal contains a structured title, abstract, motivation, rationale, detailed documentation, and supporting references describing the governance action, the intended use of funds, and the operational framework of the Orion Fund. The record provides sufficient information for governance participants to evaluate the proposed withdrawal.
The action satisfies Article II, § 7, 1 by clearly specifying the terms of the withdrawal. The proposal requests 50 million ada as the first tranche of funding for the Orion Fund and describes the purpose of the withdrawal as establishing a professionally managed ecosystem investment fund intended to support Cardano-native and Cardano-integrated companies. The proposal specifies the delivery period, the categories of costs and expenses associated with the fund’s operation, and the circumstances under which proceeds or unused funds may be returned to the Treasury.
The action satisfies Article II, § 7, 2 by disclosing that neither the proposer nor the Orion Fund has received funds from the Cardano Treasury within the past two years.
The action satisfies Article II, § 7, 3. Treasury withdrawals must not exceed the Net Change Limit. The requested withdrawal of 50 million ada is below the currently established Net Change Limit of 350 million ada and therefore does not exceed the constitutional treasury outflow limit.
The action satisfies Article II, § 7, 4 by establishing mechanisms for transparency, reporting, and oversight. The proposal includes commitments to public reporting, quarterly fund updates, ecosystem metrics dashboards, and public disclosures regarding portfolio performance and ecosystem impact. These reporting mechanisms provide ongoing transparency regarding the use of treasury funds.
The action satisfies Article II, § 7, 5 by identifying administrators responsible for monitoring the use of funds and ensuring delivery of the proposal’s objectives. The Orion Fund will be managed by Draper Dragon through a defined fund governance structure, while Arouet Holdings will act as the limited partner representing the interests of the Treasury with the objective of returning value to the Treasury.
The action also satisfies Article II, § 7, 6 regarding fund custody and governance. The proposal describes the legal structure through which the funds will be administered and explains how capital and any eventual returns are intended to flow back to the Treasury via Arouet Holdings.
Finally, the proposal aligns with the principles described in Article I of the Constitution by promoting ecosystem growth, increasing on-chain activity, and attempting to return financial value to the Cardano Treasury through structured investments in ecosystem companies.Tingvard finds this governance action constitutional. The proposal satisfies the requirements of Article II, § 6 and Article II, § 7, 1 through 6 of the Cardano Constitution. The withdrawal amount, purpose, reporting structure, oversight arrangements, and treasury return mechanisms are sufficiently described, and the requested amount remains within the current Net Change Limit.