Strengthening Institutional Readiness and Liqwid’s Financial Foundations with a Private LQ Token Sale

Overview

Liqwid is entering an exciting new phase marked by the launch of innovative, institutionally aligned DeFi products that extend far beyond its original lending protocol.

With Direct Lending for Real-World Assets (RWA) through Liqwid vaults nearing production readiness, and the introduction of tokenized gold featuring a clearly defined asset issuance–to–custodian workflow (capable of supporting additional commodities), the foundation for Liqwid’s TradFi–DeFi bridge is taking shape.

In parallel, the BTC DeFi expansion is scheduled for release in the coming months—positioning Liqwid to become a leading decentralized credit market, seamlessly connecting on-chain DeFi with off-chain traditional finance for a unified capital markets ecosystem built on Cardano.

Liqwid has long collaborated with a range of financial partners—institutions, market makers, and family offices—to serve their lending and borrowing needs. This upcoming product phase is explicitly designed to engage traditional financial institutions, enabling real-world asset tokenization backed by the security and capital efficiency of the Liqwid protocol. If successfully implemented, these products will expand Liqwid’s value proposition, attract new institutional participants, and significantly boost protocol revenues. Because of these compelling developments, the Liqwid Core Team has attracted strategic investors interested in acquiring LQ tokens through a private transaction.

The proceeds from this sale will be used to fully repay the existing Protocol-Owned Liquidity (POL) debt, totaling approximately $5.1 million, thereby strengthening the DAO’s balance sheet and positioning Liqwid for sustainable, long-term growth.

With DeFi regulations easing across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, institutional capital that was previously restricted is now beginning to participate in DeFi protocol funding rounds and strategic raises at scale. The Liqwid DAO Core Team views this moment as a unique opportunity to strengthen the DAO’s capitalization and to showcase to global investors why Cardano’s leading lending and borrowing protocol represents a compelling and credible investment opportunity.

Proposed Actions for the governance proposal

1. Authorize TWAP Strategic Sale to Private Investors

  • Authorize a strategic sale of LQ DAO tokens to private investors who share Liqwid DAO’s long-term vision of building a sustainable, cash flow–generating foundation. The sale will be conducted using a time-weighted average price (TWAP) to ensure fair valuation, with multi-year vesting schedules designed to align incentives and reward low time preference investors committed to the protocol’s long-term growth.
  • Proceeds from this sale will be allocated specifically to repay the outstanding POL loan in full.

This repayment will strengthen the DAO’s balance sheet, enhance the investment case for LQ among traditional finance (TradFi) investors, and enable the Liqwid DAO Core Team to engage a broader global investor base. It also demonstrates fiscal discipline and strategic foresight ahead of the protocol’s upcoming product expansions.

At the heart of these strategic sales is a focus on reinforcing the LQ DAO Token’s value proposition and increasing its appeal to a diverse global audience — including leading institutional inverstors, institutional capital allocators, and digital asset funds with mandates to invest in DeFi protocols with high potential.

The funds deployed recently for the POL loan repayment have been successfully secured through negotiations led by the Liqwid DAO Core Team.

2. Treasury Management and Consolidation of POL Collateral Assets

  • Transfer all LQ from the POL collateral deposits back to the Liqwid DAO Treasury multi-sig wallet once all POL loan repayments are completed.
  • Establish standardized DAO treasury management policies, including:
    • Clear multi-signature authorization procedures defined in the upcoming decentralized scaling roadmap.
    • Quarterly financial statements summarizing protocol revenue, quarterly profit amounts, current treasury asset valuations, current liabilities, and detailed quarterly income insights.
    • Framework for deploying treasury assets into yield-bearing or strategic investment initiatives to be launched pending a successful DAO approval and onchain vote.

Message from the Liqwid DAO Core Team

Completing a strategic sale to DAO aligned private investor(s) with proceeds used to repay outstanding POL loans marks a significant milestone for the Liqwid protocol and DAO. This step reinforces confidence in the protocol’s financial health by reducing current liabilities and will greatly enhance the overall credibility of the Liqwid DAO.

As TradFi institutions continue to adopt blockchain-based financial infrastructure, Liqwid is strategically positioning itself as one of the strongest competitors in the RWA and UTxO-based lending vertical with the upcoming BTC DeFi and V3 launches.

This positioning is especially relevant as easing regulations enable more TradFi institutions to explore DeFi opportunities at an unprecedented scale. We believe the market opportunity to pair TradFi sourced deep liquidity with institutional grade on-chain lending products has never been stronger.

Building on Cardano’s decentralized and robust foundation we are advancing our product development in this rapidly evolving and maturing market frontier.

Expected Outcomes for the Liqwid protocol

  • Institutional Appeal: Liqwid protocol and LQ DAO token immediately benefits from improved attractiveness to institutional capital allocators seeking exposure to strong revenue generating DeFi protocols with support for RWA and BTC DeFi markets.

  • Long-Term Sustainability: Reduction in current liabilities leads to an increased ability to fully focus on rapidly shipping protocol development and new products capable of bringing new users to Cardano DeFI and advancing the DAO towards long-term fiscal sustainability.

On the business side, this initiative provides Liqwid with a stronger position when engaging potential TradFi partners — deeper market integrations and increased market utilizations which ultimately results in accelerating growth of protocol revenue and profit.

As stablecoin issuers (beyond USDC and USDT) explore new, less saturated blockchain ecosystems, Cardano stands out as a decentralized and technically robust alternative with Liqwid as the dominant lend-borrow protocol on Cardano as their obvious first choice for liquidity deployments. We are already observing this in early stages currently.

Expected Outcomes for LQ Holders

  • LQ Value Appreciation and Open Market Activity: Certain private investors have expressed strong interest in acquiring LQ tokens on the open market, signaling their alignment with the Liqwid DAO Core Team and long-term confidence in the Cardano DeFi ecosystem.

The primary objective of this private sale is to repay the $~5.1 million Protocol-Owned Liquidity (POL) loan, thereby strengthening Liqwid’s balance sheet, removing outstanding liabilities, and allowing the team to focus fully on execution and sustainable growth.

Conclusion

Based on these expected outcomes, the DAO Core Team strongly recommends the adoption of this proposal. We believe it represents a key step toward strengthening Liqwid DAO’s financial foundation, expanding its institutional reach, and delivering long-term value for the DAO and LQ holders alike.


Do you approve this proposal to authorize a private LQ token sale?

  • Yes, I approve this proposal to authorize a private LQ token sale.
  • No, I do not approve this proposal to authorize a private LQ token sale.
0 voters
2 Likes

I fully support this. Bringing institutional investors into the Liqwid community is a huge win and removing the POL debt is also very fiscally responsible for the DAO.

1 Like

Yes. But please provide as much details as possible about the TWAP and the investors. Because them doing a deal with the DAO is them doing a deal with all of us, the DAO members.

1 Like

This proposal seeks to authorize the Core Team to organize the transaction and to grant them the mandate to conduct discussions and negotiations with potential investors until an agreement is reached.

The DAO members have to say “Yes” or “No”.

Great development for the protocol. Repaying the POL loan will reduce significant pressure on the protocol’s leverage on LQ price. The multi year vesting schedule is also great to increase confidence for LQ holders and to avoid potential massive dumping by private investors on open market and this also shows private investor’s alignment with long term protocol interest.

I fully support this proposal.

1 Like

Yes, I approve this proposal to authorize a private LQ token sale.

1 Like

Here are the final terms regarding the sale. They will be added in the final onchain vote:

I) Conversion of USD Payment Into LQ
For every USD payment made to the Liqwid DAO:

  • The USD amount is converted into LQ using the 30-day moving average price of LQ, calculated as of the payment date.
  • LQ Amount = USD Payment ÷ 30-Day Average LQ Price

Once the payment is recorded, the corresponding LQ tokens are transferred to a dedicated vesting wallet. Tokens held in this wallet cannot be staked, used for governance, or receive any programmatic rewards. They remain in this wallet until the relevant vesting tranche becomes eligible for distribution.

II) Vesting Schedule

  • The vesting period lasts 1 year from the payment date.
  • After the 1-year cliff, the total LQ amount is released in four equal tranches.
  • Each tranche is separated by 90 days.

So the distribution schedule is (Date | LQ Amount allocation per tranche):

  1. 1st Tranche: “Payment Date + 1 year” (25% of LQ Amount)
  2. 2nd Tranche: “Payment Date + 1 year + 90 days” (25% of LQ Amount)
  3. 3rd Tranche: “Payment Date + 1 year + 180 days” (25% of LQ Amount)
  4. 4th Tranche: “Payment Date + 1 year + 270 days” (25% of LQ Amount)

Each tranche releases ¼ of the total vested LQ.–

III) Example
Payment Date: X
USD Payment: $1,000,000
30-day Average LQ Price on Date X: $1.25
Conversion

  • LQ Received = 1,000,000 ÷ 1.25 = 800,000 LQ

Vesting

  • 1st Tranche (X + 1 year): 200,000 LQ
  • 2nd Tranche (X + 1 year + 90 days): 200,000 LQ
  • 3rd Tranche (X + 1 year + 180 days): 200,000 LQ
  • 4th Tranche (X + 1 year + 270 days): 200,000 LQ