MonkeDAO

MonkeDAO is Solana's first community-owned and operated NFT DAO—a decentralized membership organization gated to holders of the Solana Monkey Business (SMB) NFT collection that has grown from a grassroots Discord into a multi-pronged ecosystem contributor running a liquid staking pool, a startup incubator, and an active investment arm.

Origins and Membership

MonkeDAO formed in August 2021, shortly after the release of SMB Gen2, as an independent organization built by and for NFT holders rather than the original project creators. Membership is tied directly to SMB NFT ownership: holding an SMB Gen1 or Gen2 token grants access to MonkeDAO's gated Discord and voting rights within the DAO. The community has grown to more than 3,000 members across 80-plus countries, making it one of the larger holder-organized communities on Solana.

MonkeDAO operates with formal governance documentation—bylaws, a code of conduct, and a structured proposal process through which any member can submit and vote on initiatives. Governance runs on-chain through the Realms platform. The organization describes its model as a "Web3.0 Country Club," positioning collective ownership and shared infrastructure as the mechanism for delivering value rather than a token airdrop or yield product.

IP Acquisition

In April 2023, MonkeDAO acquired the intellectual property of the Solana Monkey Business collection outright for $2 million, purchasing it from Hadeswap, which had acquired the IP from the original creators. The deal was significant because it placed full creative and commercial control of SMB—one of Solana's earliest and most recognized NFT collections—into the hands of the holder community. A MonkeDAO member provided a $1 million USDC loan at zero interest to help close the acquisition. The purchase cemented the DAO's commitment to self-determination and distinguished MonkeDAO from most NFT communities, where IP remains with a founding team independent of holders.

DAOPool and daoSOL

The most technically substantive product MonkeDAO has built is DAOPool, a community-run liquid staking pool on Solana and the first staking pool launched by a DAO on the network. Users deposit SOL into DAOPool and receive daoSOL—a liquid staking token comparable in structure to mSOL or stSOL—in return. The pooled SOL is delegated across a curated set of community and DAO-operated validators rather than to institutional node operators.

The core design philosophy behind DAOPool addresses a real structural problem: smaller DAOs that want to run Solana validators often cannot attract sufficient delegated stake on their own to reach profitability. DAOPool aggregates community SOL across multiple such validators, helping them reach breakeven while advancing network decentralization. Early participants in the pool included MonkeDAO's own validator alongside those of Degen Ape Academy and Thugbirdz.

daoSOL trades on Orca, Raydium, and Saber, giving stakers liquidity without a waiting period. DAOPool also integrates cross-chain liquidity support via Mayan. MonkeDAO was the first DAO to run its own Solana validator, initially with hardware assistance from GenesysGo before taking full independent ownership of the infrastructure.

MonkeFoundry: Startup Incubator

MonkeFoundry is MonkeDAO's flagship incubator for early-stage Web3 builders on Solana. The program provides selected teams with over $300,000 in initial capital, mentorship, workshops, and access to MonkeDAO's network of more than 3,000 members as a user-testing base. Teams accepted into the incubator also receive Gen3 NFTs locked for six to twelve months, embedding them directly into the MonkeDAO membership ecosystem.

MonkeFoundry has backed nine projects through its first cohort, including LootGO (crypto rewards gaming), Ruby Corporation (token distribution tooling), Kyzzen (onboarding infrastructure), weRate (decentralized business reviews), Rumi (AI protocol), Amp Pay (payments), and Metafide (prediction markets). A second cohort launched in 2026, with teams including Tab.markets, NukeTrade, Swish.cash, SurfCash, and Otus Finance presenting at a dedicated MonkeFoundry Townhall in August 2026. The program's stated mission is to make MonkeDAO "the premier incubator for innovation" on Solana.

MonkeVentures

MonkeVentures is MonkeDAO's investment syndicate, designed to give members access to early-stage venture deals that would otherwise be available only to institutional or angel investors. As of the most recent public disclosures, MonkeVentures has funded more than 35 teams across the Solana ecosystem. The syndicate democratizes deal access by pooling member capital and expertise, reflecting the DAO's broader positioning as a network of Web3 founders, operators, and investors rather than passive NFT collectors.

Strategic Monke Reserve

On March 28, 2025, MonkeDAO became the first DAO in history to formally hold a Bitcoin reserve as a treasury strategy. The DAO acquired zBTC—a token native to Solana and pegged 1:1 with Bitcoin via Zeus Network's trustless sidechain—for its Strategic Monke Reserve (SMR). The stated objectives were treasury diversification and long-term financial sustainability. The zBTC reserve also positions MonkeDAO's treasury to participate in Bitcoin-native DeFi activities on Solana, including lending, borrowing, and yield strategies, without relying on traditional cross-chain bridges.

Community Infrastructure

Beyond its financial products and incubator, MonkeDAO maintains active community infrastructure including local chapters in 28-plus cities for in-person gatherings, regular virtual events and Town Halls, and a weekly newsletter called The Banana Split. The organization's communications span Discord, X (Twitter), Telegram, YouTube, and Instagram. The newsletter has run continuously since at least 2022 and as of July 2026 continues on a weekly cadence.

Role in the Solana Ecosystem

MonkeDAO occupies a distinctive position within Solana that is difficult to reduce to a single product category. It was among the earliest entities to demonstrate that an NFT holder community could build and govern real infrastructure—a validator, a staking pool, an incubator—rather than simply hold speculative assets. The SMB IP acquisition, DAOPool, and MonkeFoundry together form a flywheel in which community membership translates to ownership of real ecosystem tooling and early access to emerging Solana projects. The DAO's decision to establish a Bitcoin reserve via native Solana infrastructure further signals its intent to remain a long-term institution within the ecosystem rather than a collection-era artifact.