These structures are increasingly being used as legal wrappers for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and as ecosystem stewards for major Web3 projects.
According to a press release from Cayman Finance, many of the world’s largest Web3 projects are now registered in the Cayman Islands, with at least 17 foundation companies with treasuries over $100 million.
Why DAOs are choosing Cayman The Cayman foundation company has emerged as a preferred tool for DAOs that need to sign contracts, hire contributors, hold IP, and interact with regulators, all while shielding tokenholders from personal liability for the DAO's obligations.
The legal wake‑up call for many communities came in 2024 with Samuels v. Lido DAO, in which a US federal judge found that an unwrapped DAO could be treated as a general partnership under California law, exposing participants to personal liability.
The Cayman’s foundation company is designed to plug that gap, offering a separate legal personality and the ability to own assets and sign agreements, while giving tokenholders comfort that they are not partners by default.
Add in tax neutrality, a legal framework familiar to institutional allocators, and an ecosystem of firms that now specialize in Web3 treasuries, and it becomes clearer why more projects have quietly redomiciled their foundations to Grand Cayman.
Elsewhere, policymakers have made big promises but delivered patchwork. Donald Trump has repeatedly pledged to turn the United States into the “crypto capital of the planet,” but at the entity level, only a handful of states...