VitaDAO has approved a $400k loan for Vitality Healthspan Foundation (VHF). The proposal was approved on Thursday morning following a voting round that featured only 29 participants.
VitaDAO is a community-owned collective that funds early-stage longevity science research. Members of the DAO had the option to vote between providing a $400k, $300k, or $200k secured loan to VHF and not providing a loan at all. A significant percentage of the voters rallied behind the idea of funding VHF with $400k. However, approximately 10% of the participants voted against the loan request.
VHF is the DAO’s partner not-for-profit that finds and invests in longevity and healthspan-related research. The company has an early advantage to purchase equity in startups that are not yet open to NFT-based financing from VitaDAO.
Through the approved loan agreement, VitaDAO will be able to “fund up to 8 projects within the $50-100K range.” Meanwhile, the loan will be secured against the underlying equity in the companies that VHF in turn funds.
VitaDAO’s partnership with VHF underscores how DAOs can circumvent regulatory bottlenecks to invest in traditional firms. Regulators have targeted a number of DAO communities in recent times. For instance, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently won a landmark case against Ooki DAO. The group was asked to pay a civil monetary penalty of $643k, as well as immediately seize operations.
