PEOPLE, the governance token of ConstitutionDAO, soared in value by nearly 200% in just 24 hours despite its trading volumes falling off the cliff in the same period, data on CoinMarketCap shows.
The cost to purchase 1 PEOPLE token surged to $0.0321 compared to $0.0110 24 hours ago. In contrast, its trading volumes across the crypto exchanges dropped by almost 100% to over $181,000, reflecting that the ongoing bullish move had very little support behind it.
The story so far
The massive upside momentum in PEOPLE’s market came at a time when users must have been dumping it for the Ethereum blockchain’s native token, Ether (ETH).
That is primarily because ConstitutionDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), crowdsourced over $47 million in Ether via the sale of PEOPLE. It wanted to use the proceeds to buy a rare copy of the United States constitution but lost its bids to billionaire Citadel CEO Ken Griffin at a recent Sotheby’s auction.
Left with no Constitution and $47 million worth of ETH funds in its multi-signature wallets, ConstitutionDAO decided to refund the entire amount to its donors. But many in the DAO’s Discord community stressed that they did not want to pay the high refund gas fees.
In response, the ConstitutionDAO team provided two choices to its donors: either they could return their PEOPLE tokens for ETH (minus gas fees), or they can choose to receive a new governance token, dubbed We The People (WTP), without having to pay a gas fee, at the rate of 1 PEOPLE per WTP.
For everyone who wants to continue riding with us, you’ll also be able to sign a message (without paying for gas) committing your funds to the DAO’s treasury and get our governance token $WTP (We The People) back.
Of course, you can also do nothing and see how things play out
— ConstitutionDAO (, ) (@ConstitutionDAO) November 20, 2021
Meanwhile, in the event of donors not choosing to demand refunds, ConstitutionDAO will retain the capital.
As a result, the DAO will be able to keep a portion of the ETH in its vaults as long as donors convert their PEOPLE to WTP or ignore any reimbursements. So, if the value of Ether rises, the price of WTP will likely increase in tandem.
Therefore, the ongoing PEOPLE price rally is hinting that traders have been either choosing to hold it or buy it from the secondary markets to get a hold of the WTP token at a later stage.
so, in my medium thoughtboi post, is it more impactful that @ConstitutionDAO raised $40m+ or that it pumped 4x as a memecoin after dissolving? https://t.co/ohX8SafyST
— Mike DAOdas (@mdudas) November 25, 2021
Juicebox a clear winner
ConstitutionDAO has not released any specific reason why it wants donors to reimburse their PEOPLE tokens via a new governance asset, given it has already announced that it would shut down after failing to win the U.S. Constitution’s rare copy.
David Gerard, author of the book Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain and a news blog of the same name, noted that Juicebox.money, another DAO that processes payments for ConstitutionDAO, typically collects 5% of all the money made by the project.
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Therefore, Juicebox might have already made at least $2.35 million through the ConstitutionDAO crowdfund and may make more from the upcoming WTP-funded ventures, if there are any.
“Not too bad a payday,” wrote Gerard.
Auction is lost. $40 million worth of $PEOPLE is now essentially worthless after the people who minted it say it no longer has a purpose. They talk about starting a new token, $WTP, with a new, nebulous purpose.
— Sam Rose (@samwhoo) November 24, 2021
For now, the outgoing ConstitutionDAO team has announced core contributor Brian Wagner and Web 3.0 expert Liminal Warmth as the project’s new leaders.
Meanwhile, the community has been voting on how it could deploy its Ether-backed WTP reserves on other projects, with its ideas ranging from pursuing a copy of the Bill of Rights to making a new Web 3.0 constitution from scratch.
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