Treasure DAO Announces Major Pivot to Extend Runway Until February 2026

Treasure DAO, the decentralized video game ecosystem, has revealed a significant restructuring plan aimed at extending its financial runway through at least February 2026. In a video posted on April 2, John Patten, the DAO's chief contributor, detailed a series of cost-cutting measures and strategic shifts to ensure the project’s survival.

Patten, who has resumed a leadership role within the DAO, explained that the organization had been operating at an annual burn rate of $8.3 million. With the current treasury nearing depletion, he emphasized the urgency of restructuring the DAO’s operations to reduce costs and focus on key projects that can generate revenue and provide long-term sustainability.

Cost-Cutting Measures and Streamlining Operations

As part of the effort to cut expenses, Patten announced that 15 contributors had either left or been laid off, signaling a major reduction in operational overhead. Additionally, certain initiatives, such as game publishing support and the Treasure Chain, will be discontinued. These moves aim to reduce the DAO’s burn rate and ensure its survival as it works to extend its runway.

One key proposal to bolster the DAO’s finances is the withdrawal of $785,000 in idle funds from the market maker Flowdesk. Patten hopes that this move will inject much-needed liquidity into the DAO’s treasury, allowing it to survive through February 2026, assuming an optimistic scenario. Currently, the DAO’s treasury holds $2.4 million, while the ecosystem fund contains 22.3 million MAGIC tokens, valued at approximately $2.3 million.

However, Patten cautioned that if the price of MAGIC continues to decline, the DAO could become unsustainable sometime between December 2025 and February 2026. This timeline underscores the urgency of Treasure DAO’s restructuring efforts to ensure it has sufficient funds to continue operations.

A Refocused Strategy: Concentrating on Key Projects

In addition to financial adjustments, Patten outlined a refocused strategy for Treasure DAO, emphasizing the need to concentrate on a select number of products. Moving forward, the DAO will focus its efforts on just four key initiatives: the marketplace, Bridgeworld, Smolworld, and the AI agent scaling technology. These products will form the core of Treasure DAO’s future development, with a particular emphasis on revenue generation.

Patten noted that the DAO will no longer spread itself thin across numerous initiatives, but instead will direct resources toward demonstrating the use cases of its MAGIC marketplace and its AI framework, which will be utilized to run multiple agents concurrently. This streamlined approach is designed to ensure that Treasure DAO can provide value through token use, creating a more sustainable ecosystem.

The Challenges and Future Outlook

Founded in 2021, Treasure DAO initially aimed to offer game publishers access to infrastructure and advisory services for launching Web3-based games. However, Patten admitted that the DAO struggled with developing a scalable business model and has seen little growth since the Arbitrum airdrop in March 2023.

The current challenges facing Treasure DAO are reflected in the performance of its native token, MAGIC. According to CoinGecko, MAGIC has dropped 16.5% in the past 24 hours, trading at $0.0872. Over the past year, the token has seen a dramatic 98% decline from its all-time high of $6.32, reached in February 2022.

Despite these setbacks, Patten is determined to steer Treasure DAO through this difficult period by refocusing the organization’s efforts on its core products, cutting costs, and building stronger revenue-generating initiatives. The next few months will be critical for the DAO, as it works to adapt to the evolving Web3 landscape and extend its financial runway into 2026.

Treasure DAO’s future depends on its ability to execute these plans effectively and regain the trust of the community and investors. The coming months will be crucial in determining whether the DAO can navigate this restructuring and emerge as a more sustainable player in the Web3 space.