(a) Problem the project solves

Traditional Ethereum validators rely on a single node operator, creating single points of failure (slashing, downtime, censorship). Obol solves this by enabling Distributed Validators (DVs) — validator keys split across multiple operators so no single party can compromise validator performance or security. This unlocks stronger fault tolerance, lower slashing risk, and broader operator participation in securing Ethereum and other decentralized infrastructure networks.

(b) Operational priorities

The Obol Association (Swiss) funds ongoing protocol development, grant programs, and ecosystem incentives from (i) its share of the Ecosystem Treasury (38% of supply, 8% unlocked at TGE, 30% linear over 3 years), and (ii) protocol revenue — a percentage of staking rewards earned by licensees of the Charon middleware, which accrues to Obol GMBH (Swiss wholly-owned subsidiary of the Obol Association). DV Labs (Delaware) continues core engineering under its own token allocation (19% allocated of 21% reserved for contractors & advisors) and carries out its own node operations services

(c) High-level project overview

Obol exists to distribute, decentralize, and democratize the digital infrastructure of the future — starting with Ethereum and expanding across Web3. As the foundation for Layer 1 blockchains and decentralized infrastructure networks, the Obol Collective is home to the world's largest decentralized operator ecosystem. This includes dozens of staking protocols, client teams, software tools, community projects, and professional node operators — including Lido, EtherFi, Nethermind, EigenLayer, Bitcoin Suisse, Blockdaemon, Stakewise, Chorus One, DappNode, and many more. Today, over 800 decentralized operators run Obol Distributed Validators (DVs) to secure more than $2B on Ethereum mainnet. Obol DVs deliver stronger performance, lower risk, and better rewards than traditional validators — empowering anyone to run high-performance, slashing-resistant validators. Alongside DVs, the Obol Stack is a modular, plug-and-play framework that makes it easy to deploy and manage Ethereum nodes, AI agents, AVSs, and other decentralized infrastructure. From L1s and L2s to DePIN, AVSs, and beyond — Obol is powering the next generation of decentralized systems.

(d) Primary token functions

The OBOL token does not currently have direct value-accrual mechanisms such as fee-sharing or in-protocol staking rewards. The long-term vision is for OBOL to become the economic backbone of the Distributed Validator ecosystem, with utility that is product-driven, tightly coupled to real usage and demand, and sustainable over the long term. Several initiatives are underway toward this goal, including strategic treasury operations, the Obol Economic Engine and Protocol Owned Liquidity, and deeper integration of the token within the Distributed Validator stack.

(e) Control surface reliance

The OBOL Token is regulated by FINMA (Swiss) which does not allow for binding involvement of token holders into decision making. The Obol Association Board (simple majority quorum) controls all decisions regarding operations and funding. DV Labs Board (simple majority quorum) controls all decisions regarding core development.

(a) IP ownership & control

There is no active DAO or similar structure holding any IP, tokens or other property. The Obol Collective is a general concept used by marketing to refer to the wider ecosystem of partners and users of Obol-related technologies

(b) Contract/admin powers

Not applicable

(c) Locked-token rights (conditional)

Not applicable

(d) Value accrual & holder rights

OBOL does not currently have direct value-accrual mechanisms such as fee-sharing or staking rewards embedded in the token design. Subject to legal and regulatory constraints, revenue generated by the Obol Association may be used to buy back tokens or pay a yield to token holders which it has done in the past.

(e) Dissolution authority

Not applicable

(a) Entity

Obol Association Obol Association — Swiss entity (Verein) in Zug.

(b) IP ownership & control

The Obol Association owns Obol GMBH, a wholly-owned Swiss subsidiary. The Charon IP (and its related repositories, under BSL) is owned by DV Labs and licensed to the Obol Association for sub-licensing to Obol GMBH and ultimately to end-users. The Obol GMBH receives a percentage of the staking rewards of Charon licensees, deducted automatically via smart contracts. The Pluto IP (second implementation of the DV Protocol, developed by Nethermind) is owned by the Obol Association. The Obol Association owns the IP with the trademark and brand associated with Obol.

(c) Powers over DAO, treasury, protocol-controlled resources, and token administration

The Obol Association holds all control over its treasury The Obol Association controls the following on-chain wallets:

• Ecosystem Treasury 1: 0x42D201CC4d9C1e31c032397F54caCE2f48C1FA72
• Ecosystem Treasury 2: 0xAEfd0B68212ddca96D9cF69128C6f47351feF5FB
• OBOL Incentives Reserve: 0xdc8A309111aB0574CA51cA9C7Dd0152738e4c374
• Protocol Revenue: 0xDe5aE4De36c966747Ea7DF13BD9589642e2B1D0d
• Grant Program: 0xa59f60A7684A69E63c07bEC087cEC3D0607cd5cE Association board resolution and signing threshold on the above wallets are required for any significant transaction.

(d) Powers over DevCo

The Obol Association does not hold any equity, board seat, contractual, or other influence over DV Labs' decision-making. Revenue generated by the Obol Association will not be returned to equity holders in DV Labs The Association contracts with DV Labs for certain services on arm's-length terms paid in USD/USDC.

(e) Contract/admin powers

Not applicable in the absence of a DAO. The Obol Association holds no pause/upgrade/admin controls over smart contracts deployed by users of Charon.

(f) Current economic arrangements and distribution policies

Core team members and the Board of the Obol Association are compensated through a combination of salary and token allocation from the Obol Association. No core team member is compensated with tokens allocated to the Obol Association outside of the Obol Association team members who are known and compensated by the Obol Association. The Obol Association's primary source of revenue is a percentage of the staking rewards received by licensees of the Charon middleware, deducted automatically via smart contracts and flowing to Obol GMBH (the Swiss wholly-owned subsidiary of the Association). Revenue generated by the Obol Association will not be returned to equity holders in DV Labs via dividends on DV Labs equity or by share repurchases of DV Labs. Subject to legal and regulatory constraints, revenue may be used to buy back OBOL tokens. This is not a legal right of token holders. No programmatic distribution mechanism to token holders currently exists.

(a) Entity

DV Labs Obol Labs Inc. dba DV Labs — Delaware corporation Inc.

(b) IP ownership & control

The Charon IP (and its related repositories, under BSL) is owned by DV Labs and licensed to the Obol Association for sub-licensing to Obol GMBH and ultimately to end-users. The Obol Stack IP.

(c) Powers over DAO, treasury, protocol-controlled resources, and token administration

DV Labs controls the following on-chain treasury wallets:

• DV Labs Treasury 1: 0xC62188bDB24d2685AEd8fa491E33eFBa47Db63C2 (2 of 3 multisig)
• DV Labs Treasury 2: 0x6BeFB6484AA10187947Dda81fC01e495f7168dB4 (2 of 3 multisig)
• DV Labs Treasury 3: 0x0e401B6e6e0BE96E785aF0243f9af61b387AD28e (1 of 2 multisig)
• DV Labs Treasury 4: 0x198632b2f6B53e03E349be805EabFe03FBf5D227 (2 of 5 multisig) DV Labs held its portion of the token supply prior to the establishment of the Obol Association and has allocated 19% of the total supply to its contractors and advisers out of a 21% reserve (leaving 2% for future contributor incentivisation). DV Labs does not have direct power over protocol-controlled resources (e.g., Charon fee parameters), or reward-parameter changes.

(d) Powers over Foundation

DV Labs or its principals does not hold board seats, contractual rights, or any other direct or indirect influence over the Obol Association. There is no overlap between the Obol Association board and DV Labs’. Note that some members of the Obol Association leadership (e.g., Thomas Heremans and Francis Hackett) served in DV Labs roles in the past prior to moving to the Association full time.

(e) Contract/admin powers

DV Labs holds no pause/upgrade/admin controls over smart contracts deployed by users of Charon.

(f) Current economic arrangements and distribution policies

Core team members in DV Labs are compensated by a mix of salary and token allocation from DV Labs, utilizing a supply owned wholly by DV Labs prior to the establishment of the Obol Association. The total number of tokens allocated to current or future Labs contractors and advisers is 21% of the total supply; DV Labs has currently allocated 19% of the total supply to its contractors and advisers, leaving 2% in DV Labs for incentivisation of current and future contractors. Revenue generated by the Obol Association will not be returned to equity holders in DV Labs via dividends on the equity in DV Labs or by share repurchases of DV Labs. Where the Obol Association contracts with DV Labs for certain services, any such contracts are the product of arm's-length negotiation and payment in USD or USDC. DV Labs has a standalone revenue source from node operations.

(a) Launch supply totals

The OBOL Token was launched (TGE) on 7 May 2025 at 11:00am UTC. Total tokens issued at launch: 500,000,000 OBOL. Based on the per-category initial unlocks below, approximately 19.14% of supply (~95.7M OBOL) was unlocked at TGE, with the remainder (~404.3M OBOL, ~80.86%) subject to vesting or scheduled release.

(b) Recipient categories & use of funds

• Category: Private Investors
  • % of Supply: 23.5%
  • Unlocked at TGE: 0%
  • Use of Funds: Consideration for prior fundraising rounds (see Section 10).
• Category: Public Sale (Coinlist)
  • % of Supply: 3.6%
  • Unlocked at TGE: 1.8%
  • Use of Funds: Consideration for community-round participants.
• Category: Airdrop
  • % of Supply: 7.5%
  • Unlocked at TGE: 7.5%
  • Use of Funds: Distributed to eligible community participants (see Section 7).
• Category: Community Incentives
  • % of Supply: 7.5%
  • Unlocked at TGE: 0.24%
  • Use of Funds: Community incentive programs, released weekly over 3 years.
• Category: Ecosystem Treasury
  • % of Supply: 38%
  • Unlocked at TGE: 8%
  • Use of Funds: Ecosystem grants, liquidity, operational funding of protocol.
• Category: Advisors & Team
  • % of Supply: 19%
  • Unlocked at TGE: 1.6%
  • Use of Funds: Compensation for DV Labs contractors, advisers, and team (see Section 1.D of prior filing).

(c) Initial price per token (if applicable)

The token started trading on May 7th 2025 11:00am UTC on multiple centralised and decentralised exchanges around $0.2

(d) Ticker / market symbol

OBOL.

(e) Total supply & supply regime

Total supply is capped at 500,000,000 OBOL. Supply is fixed — there are no additional issuance plans other than the scheduled vesting/unlock described below. Any future token issuance (e.g., minting or emissions outside scheduled vesting) will be disclosed before or at issuance with full details (amount, reason, recipient, context) in an official, permanent public channel.

(f) Initial vesting / release schedules

• Category: Private Investors (23.5%)
  • Unlock Schedule: 1/3 unlocks 1 year post-TGE; remainder unlocks quarterly over 2 years. EDIT: DV Labs has waived the lockup for private investors leading to the full 23.5% being unlocked on May 7th 2026 with the intention of reducing supply overhang and increasing float.
• Category: Public Sale (Coinlist) (3.6%)
  • Unlock Schedule: 1/2 unlocks at TGE; remainder unlocks monthly over 12 months.
• Category: Airdrop (7.5%)
  • Unlock Schedule: Fully unlocked at TGE.
• Category: Community Incentives (7.5%)
  • Unlock Schedule: Unlocks weekly over 3 years; start date 1 April 2025.
• Category: Ecosystem Treasury (38%)
  • Unlock Schedule: 8% unlocked at TGE; 30% unlocks linearly over 3 years post-TGE.
• Category: Advisors & Team (19%)
  • Unlock Schedule: 1.6% unlocked at TGE; 17.4% unlocks linearly over 3 years post-TGE. Pre-TGE early team & advisors: 1/3 vests 1 year from Network Launch (1 April 2024), 1/6 every 6 months thereafter. Pre-TGE later team & post-TGE team: 1/3 vests 1 year from Token Launch (7 May 2025), 1/6 every 6 months thereafter. Unlock schedule mirrors vesting schedule; restrictions set out in token purchase agreements.

• Executed airdrop: Status: Airdrop executed. A total of 7.5% of the 500M OBOL supply (37.5M OBOL) was distributed to the community. Snapshot date: 13 January 2025. Claim window: 90 days from 24 January 2025. Tokens were initially locked and issued as ERC-721 NFTs (enabling governance participation) before becoming transferable following a governance vote. Eligibility checker: claim.obol.org. Covered user segments and allocation method:
  • Obol Core Community (40% of airdrop) — holders of Techne credentials (any tier), testnet participants (Alpha, Beta, Athena, Bia), and DappNode owners.
  • Obol Contributions Holders (26.7% of airdrop) — based on the amount of ETH staked into Obol Distributed Validators. Linear allocation model with quadratic scaling for large contributors; 100-token minimum threshold to avoid dusting.
  • Solo Stakers & Rocketpool Node Operators (33.3% of airdrop) — based on on-chain data, including StakeCat's List B and Rocketpool operator lists. Per-address recipient source: The prior filing states: "The full recipient list can be found and downloaded here: https://github.com/ObolCollective/airdrop Transactions & Market Structures

• Market Maker Name: Amber
  • Token Allocation Committed: 0.8% of max supply
  • Term Duration: 1 year
  • Structure Name: Loan
• Market Maker Name: Auros
  • Token Allocation Committed: 0.6% of max supply
  • Term Duration: 1 year
  • Structure Name: Loan
• Market Maker Name: Arrakis
  • Token Allocation Committed: 0% (liquidity wholly owned by the Obol Association)
  • Term Duration: Terminable on 1 month's notice
  • Structure Name: Self-owned liquidity provision arrangement

• Exchange Name: Binance Alpha & Perps
  • Token Allocation Committed: 3% of max supply
  • Term Duration: 1% airdrop to alpha users, 1% for immediate marketing, 1% for marketing 6 months post TGE.
  • Native Token Listing Fees: None
• Exchange Name: Bybit
  • Token Allocation Committed: 1.5% of max supply
  • Term Duration: Airdrop to users in the first week of TGE and for marketing purposes. Unlocked at TGE.
  • Native Token Listing Fees: None
• Exchange Name: Gate
  • Token Allocation Committed: 0.5% of max supply
  • Term Duration: Airdrop to users in the first week of TGE and for marketing purposes. Unlocked at TGE.
  • Native Token Listing Fees: None
• Exchange Name: Bitget
  • Token Allocation Committed: 0.4% of max supply
  • Term Duration: Airdrop to users in the first week of TGE and for marketing purposes. Unlocked at TGE.
  • Native Token Listing Fees: None

• Series Name: Seed Round (Lead: Ethereal Ventures; $6M raised at $50M FDV)
  • Investment Vehicle: SAFE/Token Purchase Agreement
  • Date Of Sale: ~September 2021
  • Number of tokens sold: 8.3% of Total Supply
  • Vesting Schedule: Covered under "Private Investors" 23.5% bucket: 1/3 unlocks 1 year post-TGE; remainder quarterly over 2 years.
• Series Name: Series A1 (Leads: Pantera, Archetype, Placeholder; $12.5M at $125M FDV)
  • Investment Vehicle: SAFE/Token Purchase Agreement
  • Date Of Sale: 15 December 2022
  • Number of tokens sold: 14.7% of Total Supply
  • Vesting Schedule: Covered under "Private Investors" 23.5% bucket.
• Series Name: Strategic Round (Investors: Hashkey, Infstones; $1M at $180M FDV)
  • Investment Vehicle: SAFE/Token Purchase Agreement
  • Date Of Sale: ~November 2023
  • Number of tokens sold: 0.6% of Total Supply
  • Vesting Schedule: Covered under "Private Investors" 23.5% bucket.
• Series Name: Community Round (Coinlist) ($3M at $125M FDV)
  • Investment Vehicle: Token Purchase Agreement
  • Date Of Sale: ~February 2025
  • Number of tokens sold: 3.6% of Total Supply
  • Vesting Schedule: 1/2 unlocks at TGE; remainder unlocks monthly over 12 months.

(f) References (optional)

Blockworks note: No exploits affecting tokenholders or protocol funds as of 2026-04-24

(a) Regulatory, Legal & Tax Risks

Impact of Regulatory Change on TGE and Listings: The OBOL token was issued by the Obol Association, a Swiss entity. Evolving or conflicting regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions could affect the ability to maintain exchange listings or deliver tokens. In particular, jurisdictions that classify utility or governance tokens as securities could force delistings or restrict secondary trading. Exchange listing agreements (e.g., Bybit, Gate, Bitget) explicitly reserve the right to delist if the token is deemed a security or financial instrument in any jurisdiction. Entity-Level Regulatory Impact: The Obol ecosystem operates through multiple entities — the Obol Association (Swiss), Obol GMBH (Swiss subsidiary), and DV Labs (Delaware). Changes in Swiss foundation law, U.S. securities regulations, or cross-border enforcement actions could force structural changes to how the entities interact, how protocol revenue is collected, or how token allocations are administered. Licensing requirements for middleware software or staking infrastructure in new jurisdictions could create additional compliance burdens. Tokenholder Tax Treatment: The tax treatment of OBOL tokens varies by jurisdiction and is not settled in most regions. Tokenholders should be aware that acquiring, holding, or disposing of OBOL tokens may create taxable events. Tokenholders are solely responsible for understanding and complying with their own tax obligations. The Obol Association does not provide tax advice. Jurisdictional & User Access Restrictions: The OBOL token is not offered or available to U.S. persons, and exchange listing agreements restrict promotional activities in the United States, the People's Republic of China, and EEA jurisdictions (for certain exchanges such as Bybit). Sanctioned countries are excluded. Users who circumvent geographic restrictions do so at their own risk and may face loss of access to exchange services or token functionality.

(b) Protocol, Technology & Security Risks

Bugs and Design Flaws: Obol's core technology stack includes the Charon distributed validator middleware (written in Go), the Obol Splits smart contracts (Solidity), and supporting infrastructure including the DV Launchpad and relay network. Potential risks include bugs or design flaws in Charon's BFT consensus implementation, its BLS threshold signature scheme, or its distributed key generation (DKG) process. Smart contract vulnerabilities in Obol Splits could lead to misallocation of staking rewards. The protocol also depends on Ethereum's beacon chain, validator clients, and third-party infrastructure (relays, beacon nodes), any of which could introduce bugs or failures outside Obol's control. Key threat vectors identified in Obol's published threat model include: exfiltration of operator identity (ENR) keys enabling impersonation; collusion of a threshold number of rogue operators to reconstruct validator private keys and produce slashable messages; malicious beacon nodes serving illegitimate data that could disrupt BFT consensus; compromised relay infrastructure enabling topology discovery and DDoS attacks; and social engineering attacks to get operators to run modified lock files with verification disabled. Centralization risks are also documented: Obol hosting relay infrastructure creates a single point of failure (mitigated by third-party relay operators such as DSRV, Infstones, Hashquark, and Node Guardians); Obol's ability to push Charon code updates could introduce vulnerabilities (mitigated by operators pinning specific docker image versions); the DV Launchpad is hosted centrally (mitigated by CLI-based alternatives); and Obol's custodying of pre-signed exit messages could enable unwanted validator exits (mitigated by EIP-7002 withdrawal-address-initiated exits post-Pectra). Security Measures & Their Limitations: Obol has undertaken the following security measures: Audits: Six completed audit engagements — a security assessment of Charon by Sigma Prime (resulting in v0.16.0); a second Charon assessment by Quantstamp (resulting in v0.19.1); a Solidity audit of Obol Splits by Zach Obront; a penetration test of the DV Launchpad by Sayfer; and second and third Solidity audits of Obol Splits V2 and V3 by Nethermind Security. A review of development processes was also conducted by Ethereal Ventures. All audit reports are published at github.com/ObolNetwork/obol-security. Bug Bounty: Obol operates a bug bounty program with rewards up to $100,000 for critical vulnerabilities (e.g., BLS private key exfiltration, arbitrary BLS signature production, malicious cluster invite subversion). Rewards scale down to $500 for low-severity issues. The scope covers Charon, the DV Launchpad and Public API, Obol Splits contracts, and Obol-hosted relay infrastructure. Reports can be submitted to security@obol.tech. Limitations: Audits and bug bounties cannot guarantee the absence of undiscovered vulnerabilities. Charon's BFT consensus can tolerate misbehaving nodes up to the configured fault tolerance threshold, but if more than two-thirds of nodes in a cluster are malicious, safety guarantees are lost. Novel vulnerabilities in underlying cryptographic libraries (BLS12-381, SECP256K1+ECDSA) or zero-day exploits in shared infrastructure could affect multiple clusters simultaneously. The relay-based peer discovery model, while mitigated by third-party relays, remains a potential disruption vector.

(c) Token Economics, Unlocks & Incentive Risks

Critical Economic Assumptions: OBOL is a governance token without direct value-accrual mechanisms such as fee-sharing or protocol staking rewards. Staking (stOBOL) is no longer actively promoted and carries no new incentives or emissions. The token's long-term value depends on the assumption that DVT adoption grows, that Charon licensing revenue sustains the protocol, and that future product-driven utility creates organic demand. If DVT adoption stalls, competing implementations gain share, or Ethereum staking economics deteriorate materially, the economic rationale for holding OBOL may weaken. The fixed 500M supply cap removes inflation risk but also means the protocol has a finite incentive budget — if ecosystem treasury and community incentive allocations are exhausted before self-sustaining demand materializes, the project's ability to fund growth and attract operators could be constrained. Governance Control over Monetary Policy & Rewards: The OBOL token is regulated by FINMA (Swiss), which does not permit binding involvement of token holders in decision-making. The Obol Association Board holds all execution authority over treasury operations, fee parameters, and any future distribution mechanisms. Token holders have no enforceable right to direct monetary policy, revenue distribution, or reward allocations. The Association could, at its discretion, deploy treasury funds, initiate token buybacks, or redirect protocol revenue in ways that may not align with all token holders' interests. Any future changes to supply mechanics (e.g., burns, new emissions) would be disclosed publicly but are not subject to binding token holder approval.