[SIP-50] 2026 SEAM Rewards Budget Proposal
ID 433656...1097
ID 433656...1097
Proposed on: Jan 17th, 2026
Proposed on: Jan 17th, 2026
Votes
Actions
Proposal
Proposal
Summary
This proposal seeks the DAO’s approval of Seamless Protocol’s 2026 annual budget plan, requesting authorization for a 5,341,998.60 SEAM budget, recognizing the 2,014,968.33 SEAM surplus carried over from 2025, and therefore allocating an additional 3,327,030.27 SEAM in new funding, while moving from quarterly budget approvals to a streamlined annual funding model designed to improve operational agility and reduce governance overhead.
Context and motivation
2025 Results
In 2025, the team operated within the framework of a pre-approved annual budget (approved end of 2024) but received funding quarterly, with each tranche requiring a DAO vote. The DAO allocated 5,075,000 SEAM in 2025. The team spent 3,060,031.67 SEAM. The resulting surplus equal to 2,014,968.33 SEAM remains unspent and available for carry-over to 2026.
Major Milestones
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On April 14, 2025, Seamless Protocol fully sunset the legacy ILMs and the Platform. This deprecation significantly reduced maintenance overhead, freed resources, and completed the strategic transition away from the older architecture.
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With the sunset of ILMs/Platform, Seamless officially entered the platform-less era, centered on Morpho Vaults. This transition aligned the protocol with a more efficient, scalable, and modular architecture, and marked a major strategic shift in product direction.
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In 2025, Seamless successfully launched Leverage Tokens (LTs), first on Base and later expanded to Ethereum Mainnet. This product vertical became one of the core growth drivers for TVL, user adoption, and future fee generation.
Between the shutdown of legacy systems, improved operational focus, and efficient resource usage, the team achieved substantial savings. Net surplus retained for 2025: 2,014,968.33 SEAM.
While the quarterly tranche model provided oversight, it also introduced constraints, including funding delays of 1+ week per vote, limited ability to respond quickly to market opportunities, difficulty adjusting incentives, liquidity programs, or development schedules in real time. To improve agility and protocol competitiveness, the team recommends transitioning to annual planning.
2026 Budget Framework
Total proposed 2026 budget: 5,341,998.60 SEAM
2025 surplus carried over: 2,014,968.33 SEAM
Additional SEAM requested from DAO: 3,327,030.27 SEAM
The proposed budget supports two primary initiatives:
Scaling & expanding Leverage Tokens (LTs). The plan is to launch 4 new LTs per quarter.
Potential launch of Morpho Vaults on Ethereum Mainnet
Both initiatives directly support Seamless Protocol’s growth, revenue, and competitive positioning.
For 2026, we propose shifting to a single annual budget approval, enabling faster reaction to market changes, reduced governance overhead, more predictable planning and execution, greater strategic flexibility for the team and DAO.
Given the rapidly evolving nature of crypto and DeFi markets, the DAO acknowledges that the Seamless team may reallocate budgeted funds toward alternative strategic initiatives if these are deemed more beneficial, yield higher expected returns, or present materially stronger opportunities for the protocol and DAO.
This clause ensures that the protocol remains adaptive, competitive, and able to seize high-impact opportunities.
Resolution
The DAO is asked to vote FOR or AGAINST the following actions:
Approve the 2026 annual budget of 5,341,998.60 SEAM.
Approve carrying over the 2025 surplus of 2,014,968.33 SEAM into fiscal year 2026.
Authorize the issuance of 3,327,030.27 existing SEAM tokens from the DAO treasury for 2026 operations.
Grant operational flexibility allowing the team to redirect funds to alternative strategic opportunities if justified by market conditions.