Crypto governance platform Tally winds down after scrapping ICO plans

Tally, a crypto governance platform, has announced it is winding down its operations after cancelling its planned initial coin offering (ICO) because the market for DAO governance tools is not strong enough to support the business.

In an article on X, CEO Dennison Bertram said the business model no longer works after more than five years of building governance tools for decentralized protocols. 

Tally cancels its ICO and shuts down

Bertram said the Tally team spent months preparing to launch a token through an ICO that would allow the company to continue building governance tools for decentralized organizations. However, they canceled the project after realizing their goals were too far-fetched and that they could not deliver on the promises made to buyers.

“Tally will not be moving forward with an ICO. After going through nearly the entire process, we came to the conclusion that it didn’t make sense in the current market… More importantly, we weren’t confident that we could fulfill the promises we would be making to token holders if we sold them tokens,” Bertram said.

According to the CEO, the market had not yet developed because the industry had not yet found “product-market fit” in payments, trading, speculation, and financial markets, rather than build large networks of community-governed applications. In other words, the company built tools for a future that might still exist, but has not arrived yet.

Similarly, the regulatory pressure that had encouraged many blockchain teams to adopt decentralized governance systems over the past several years began to ease, leading some projects to feel less urgency to decentralize their governance structures. 

In one interview, he even said, “The administration is loudly signaling that you’re not in trouble, go forth and do what you wish.”

Other companies, such as the Solana-based exchange Jupiter and NFT company Yuga Labs, also moved away from their DAO experiments after facing governance challenges.

These changes forced Tally to face a difficult truth: the market was simply not ready for them after years of building toward a future in which decentralized communities would dominate blockchain. 

Tally supports hundreds of DAOs and secures billions in value before closing

Tally leaves behind a strong legacy, having built tools that allow communities to work together, vote on proposals, and organize how their projects should grow and change.

The software helped more than 500 DAOs with decision-making, and some of the most popular blockchain protocols, such as Uniswap, Arbitrum, and ENS, relied on the platform to run their governance processes.

However, DAO governance faced certain challenges that made the system more difficult to manage than many early supporters expected, so fewer companies felt the urgency to invest in complex governance infrastructure.

Even so, the company achieved significant milestones during its years of operations, including over $1 billion in payments processed through the systems it built. The platform also helped protect large blockchain protocols that managed billions of dollars in digital assets by supporting governance systems that secured more than $80 billion in value at one point. 

Similarly, Bertram says more than one million people visited the site to follow governance proposals, view discussions, and participate in voting, while hundreds of organizations used Tally to run their governance systems.

And according to Bertam, the company has never experienced a major security incident throughout its history. The company continued to support the growing decentralized finance ecosystem despite many challenges, including DDoS attacks, suspicious job applications from North Korean applicants, constant infrastructure pressure, and regulatory constraints during an uncertain period for crypto.

The team at Tally plans to wind down operations beginning end of March to give users time to transition to other systems. 

News of the company’s shutdown spread across the industry, and people quickly reacted, mostly thanking the teams for their massive contributions to the ecosystem.

For example, Forrest Norwood praised both the product and the people behind it, writing, “Great product with even better people behind it. Hold your heads high!” Another community member, known online as ernestognw.eth, expressed appreciation for the collaboration between teams over the years, saying, “Congrats and respect for Tally and everyone in the team. Thanks for being part of crypto’s story.” 

Other users like Developer Auryn Macmillan shared similar reactions, saying, “Sad to see Tally wind down. Appreciate all that you and the team brought to the ecosystem.”

Most of the Tally team is exploring new opportunities, while Bertram and his co-founder, Rafael “Raf” Solari, will remain involved for a short period to manage the company’s shutdown process and help users transition away from the platform.

Looking at the bigger picture, Tally’s shutdown is also an indication of broader changes in the crypto sphere. In the last few years, the overall market has been shifting towards a few main platforms and protocols. Instead of seeing thousands of new decentralized applications and platforms emerging every year, we are seeing a few main ones.

At the same time, there are more projects that are not emphasizing DAO governance as much. As decentralization is now optional rather than required, fewer companies feel that they need to create complex DAOs.

Meanwhile, new technologies such as artificial intelligence are increasingly attracting more developers, entrepreneurs, and investors. As new technological trends emerge, fewer developers are focusing on building DAO infrastructure.

Given these changes, Bertram opined that the crypto market may have started a new chapter. He also reflected on the length of time he has been involved in the crypto market and how it has changed over the years.

As Bertram explained: “People always say it’s still early. I’ve been in this since 2011. I don’t know. It doesn’t feel early.”

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