Key members of the Ethereum team have revived the hacked 2016 project TheDAO to support the network.

TheDAO is back. BULLISH

A decade later, we’re opening a new chapter.

TheDAO Security Fund: activating 75,000+ ETH to strengthen Ethereum security.https://t.co/VV3cH313TE pic.twitter.com/1Sf3g7xUWv

— thedao.fund (@thedaofund) January 29, 2026

“TheDAO is back. […] A decade later, we’re opening a new chapter,” the publication states.

As part of this initiative, the organization will be repurposed into a blockchain security fund worth $220 million, financed by a portion of the unclaimed ~75,000 ETH since the attack.

Approximately $13.5 million will be allocated for grants to third-party developers, distributed through DAO mechanisms.

The remaining funds will go into staking, which is expected to yield around $8 million annually at the current ETH rate.

The TheDAO fund manages assets from two sources:

  • ~70,500 ETH from the ExtraBalance contract, where participants can claim a portion of the assets;
  • ~4,600 ETH (DAO and ETH) from the TheDAO Curator Multisig wallet.

New curators of the project include key Ethereum developers, such as Vitalik Buterin, and members from other teams.

“The goal of TheDAO fund is to make Ethereum so secure that it’s more profitable to keep your savings in a DeFi protocol than in a bank,” representatives of the organization concluded.

It’s worth noting that in January, amid low fees, activity on the main Ethereum network surpassed that of layer two solutions.