The core team of ConstitutionDAO DAO ConstitutionDAO announced that the project had run its course and urged all participants to seek refunds of their contributions.
A group of enthusiasts created an organisation to purchase a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution, the bidding for which took place at Sotheby’s on November 18.
Despite raising more than $40 million in Ethereum, the group could not acquire the artifact. The auction winner was Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel, who paid $43.2 million for the lot, including fees.
The organisers said the DAO had 17,437 donors, with an average contribution of $206.26. They offered all participants the chance to reclaim their contributions.
Some took the opportunity, while others did not want to incur gas costs again and suggested that the DAO direct their funds to another purpose.
According to the team, they ‘had studied several options in depth’. However, the organisers concluded that they would not be able to sustain the project, given the ‘technical and administrative requirements’.
“The community has done everything it was organized to do: we raised capital, placed bids on Sotheby’s, and after losing, initiated refunds, as promised. At present we want to urge everyone who has been waiting to claim reimbursement to do so,” wrote the ConstitutionDAO team.
According to the statement, there is no deadline for refunds. The Discord chat will remain open for 14 days, after which it will be read-only.
“This project has been a milestone that showed the world that a group of friends online can use Web3 to solve what seems an insurmountable task and achieve remarkable results in improbable timeframes,” the organisers concluded.
As previously reported, a co-founder of the DuneDAO project purchased at Christie’s a rare printed version of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unreleased film Dune. He paid $3.8 million for the lot — far more than the amount raised by the DAO.