The team behind the Solana-based DEX aggregator, Jupiter, has suspended DAO voting until 2026, according to Chief Operating Officer Kash Dhanda. This decision follows a wave of criticism from the community.
Pausing DAO Voting to Focus on Jupiter & Jupiverse@JupiterExchange stands at the edge of an inflection point. The window to define the future of DeFi is open, but it won’t stay open for long.
Right now, we have the best product suite (Jup dot ag), the best community…
— Kash (?, ?) (@kashdhanda) June 19, 2025
Accusations of Centralization
DAO participants accused the project team of undermining decentralization. They claimed that developers use large JUP token holdings to influence voting outcomes.
On June 6, a community representative known as BuddyChaddi pointed to a wallet belonging to a Jupiter team member, from which over 24 million JUP were used to vote on a recent proposal.
“I’m not against the team having their share. The problem is that it’s too large to influence the DAO,” wrote on the governance forum.
Another participant, Thisisfun, supported this view. He noted that team members themselves create governance proposals and have the ability to ensure desired outcomes.
A project co-founder known as weremeow confirmed that locked team tokens can be used for voting.
He stated that he and another co-founder, Siong Ong, will refrain from participating in governance in the future. However, a third co-founder will continue to vote but will cease receiving staking rewards.
DAO Operations on Hold
The decision was explained as necessary to focus on the project’s growth. According to Dhanda, the current governance structure is not functioning as intended. He stated that the DAO is “stuck in a negative feedback loop,” which slows decision-making and creates community discord.
“The window to define the future of DeFi is open, but it won’t stay open for long. We must be laser-focused on growth,” noted Dhanda.
The suspension of voting will allow the team to focus on speed and development while rethinking the DAO’s operational principles. Dhanda promised that governance will return in 2026 “with a new approach that unites rather than divides.”
He clarified that the pause will not affect staking rewards, and all previously funded working groups will continue their activities. The acceptance of new proposals is halted, and the community reserve will remain untouched until voting resumes. The team will finance the project’s development from its own operational treasury.
“Let me reiterate: this is not the end of governance, but rather a pause,” added Dhanda.
Earlier in June, Yuga Labs proposed to cease the operations of the ApeCoin DAO and create a new structure for the development of the APE token ecosystem.