We present a study analyzing the voting behavior of contributors, or vested users, in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).

We evaluate their involvement in decision-making processes, discovering that in at least 7.54% of all DAOs, contributors, on average, held the necessary majority to control governance decisions.

Furthermore, contributors have singularly decided at least one proposal in 20.41% of DAOs. Notably, contributors tend to be centrally positioned within the DAO governance ecosystem, suggesting the presence of inner power circles.

Additionally, we observed a tendency for shifts in governance token ownership shortly before governance polls take place in 1202 (14.81%) of 8116 evaluated proposals.

Our findings highlight the central role of contributors across a spectrum of DAOs, including Decentralized Finance protocols.

Our research also offers important empirical insights pertinent to ongoing regulatory activities aimed at increasing transparency to DAO governance frameworks.

S. Kitzler, S. Balietti, P. Saggese, B. Haslhofer, M. Strohmaier, The Governance of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations: A Study of Contributors’ Influence, Networks, and Shifts in Voting Power, in: Clark, J., Shi, E. (eds) Financial Cryptography and Data Security, FC 2024, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 14745, (2025) Springer, Cham.