Across Protocol proposes going private, offering token holders exit or equity

Welcome back to Talking Tokens.

Was this forwarded to you? subscribe here.

As many traditional companies are diving deep into the tokenization space today, Across Protocol is proposing to its token holders that it go a different direction: become a private company by buying out their tokens, or exchange them for equity. 

The protocol is looking to take itself private because its DAO structure was inhibiting growth, Hart Lambur, the co-founder of Across Protocol, said on Token Relations’ Talking Tokens podcast.

“I’ve always been a token maximalist,” Lambur said. “We launched the Across token very early, at a very low market cap, with a pretty broad airdrop specifically because we wanted to build in public and accrue value to our community and users. But I think the macro environment has changed.”

Across Protocol connects a number of major networks, including Ethereum and Solana, allowing users to bridge or swap tokens across chains. To date, it has processed over $35 billion in volume.

But as institutional and enterprise demand grew, its structure proved to be a bottleneck. Lambur believes the protocol “could be better served by a more traditional structure.”

To our knowledge, Across’ proposal to take itself private is a rare move, but it comes as the industry has started acknowledging that DAOs make for a difficult organizational structure. 

In August 2025, when the Uniswap Foundation proposed the creation of DUNI, a legal entity, the protocol said a formalized structure would allow for more “capabilities and greater autonomy.” 

And earlier this week, Aave’s founder Stani Kulechov wrote about the friction involved in running a DAO. “DAOs, as we've been running them, are extraordinarily difficult, and not in the way that building hard things is difficult. They're difficult in the way of fighting your own organizational structure every single day.” 

For Across, Risk Labs is the foundation and legal entity that “signs contracts today” and has been building the protocol, but Lambur said the DAO is separate. 

The protocol currently operates under the “classic token structure,” in which you have an onchain protocol, and a legal entity that loosely works for the protocol. But they are separate structures, Lambur said. “That’s one of the things people have critiqued DAO models for, and in essence, we’re trying to unify that,” he added.

Across had been considering this move for a few months before it shared the proposal on Wednesday. “It's one of those things, where you look at the macro environment, you look at how these tokens are undervalued, and then you look at the frictions in trying to do business in more traditional ways.”

The proposal gives token holders two options: exchange their ACX token for equity in AcrossCo., or redeem it for USDC at a one-month average market rate. Those holding large amounts of the token can exchange the tokens directly for shares, while users with small pools can do so via a no-fee special-purpose vehicle.. 

One of the biggest negatives about the proposal is that there are restrictions on how many token holders can roll their holdings forward into the potential S Corp through equity, Lambur acknowledged. “This is based on U.S. securities law, and we designed this to be as inclusive as humanly possible.” 

“A US C corp can't have 5,000 entries on its cap table,” so there needs to be some aggregation, he pointed out. Still, he’s optimistic that it can work.

The proposal comes with a two-week discussion period before a snapshot, or vote, is put out to the community.

Check out the next section for more details and the full episode.

For today’s episode, I interviewed Hart Lambur, co-founder of Across Protocol and UMA, in two segments: breaking news about Across's token-to-equity proposal and a conversation from ETH Denver. Hart first unveils the Bridge Across proposal, a first-of-its-kind "token buyout" where, if approved, ACX holders can exchange tokens for equity in a new C Corp at 1:1 ratio or redeem for USDC. He explains why the DAO structure has become a bottleneck as institutional demand grows, why long tail tokens are undervalued, how enterprise partners need enforceable contracts DAOs can't provide, and addresses concerns around US security law restrictions before the two-week community discussion period.

The ETH Denver segment covers why competition from Stripe's Tempo and Circle's Arc will push Ethereum into "war mode" and drive innovation, the evolution of the Open Intents framework and two-second bridging experiences, how the L2 thesis didn't stick while EVM architecture remains strong, whether stablecoins will be consumer-facing or backend infrastructure for fintechs, the power law distribution of stablecoins as a key competition metric, and why AI agent-to-agent payments are a natural fit for crypto rails.

TIMESTAMPS 

00:00 – Intro

01:54 – The Bridge Across proposal for token-to-equity exchange or USDC buyout options

02:40 – Why DAOs can't sign enterprise contracts and long tail tokens are undervalued

08:52 – Across Protocol maintaining decentralized governance and non-custodial protections

10:46 – What happens next: two-week discussion period before snapshot vote

14:13 – Intro to ETH Denver conversation

15:27 – Energy in bear markets: focus on building over hype and token prices

16:05 – Ethereum going into "war mode" with competition from Tempo and Arc

17:22 – How blockchain fragmentation benefits Across while challenging user experience

18:23 – Open Intents framework's evolution since launch

20:18 – L2 thesis not sticking as expected, but EVM architecture remains strong

24:33 – Future of blockchain interoperability and solving fragmentation for users

29:12 – Stablecoins as consumer products versus backend fintech infrastructure

34:48 – How Robinhood and Stripe are approaching stablecoin adoption differently

38:23 – Power law distribution of stablecoins as key metric for competition

42:28 – AI agents and agent-to-agent payments as natural crypto use case

43:32 – Final advice: stay the course through bear markets

Talking Tokens episodes are released on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at 6AM EST or YouTube at 8AM EST every Tuesday and Thursday. Listen in!

Make sure to subscribe to keep up with the latest episodes. Feel free to leave a review and tell us your thoughts.

Crypto-focused headlines or research that caught my eye…and should catch yours, too.

Get involved and share the newsletter. The more you refer, the more perks you could get. If you do (or don’t) like what you see, let me know by sending feedback to [email protected] or leaving a review on your preferred podcast platform.

This product was built by Token Relations. 

Please note this content is for informational and educational purposes only. Any views shared should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research. We may have a direct or indirect financial interest in content mentioned in this newsletter.