We've derisked quite a bit. After derisking higher we kept re-adding. That has completely stopped. This isn't purely an alpha based call. I don't have a good read on the market, we're up a lot into year end and want to crystallize gains, and I'm worried about what's coming. Short term, crypto may be uninvestable. Democrats are probably going Gensler 2.0. There are plenty of nasty outcomes: - DATs made illegal and forced to unwind -Warren Banking Oversight - Protocols pushing memecoins getting prosecuted - Privacy tokens treated as hostile Mid to long term, this is obviously a net good for Bitcoin. Democrats will likely accelerate spending and fiat debasement, and the industry may come out better once it gets "cleaned up." Expect a tremendous amount of volatility. It will present incredible buying opportunities. Note: The democrats cannot replace the CFTC chair who has been ruling favorably for stock perps and DeFi generally, so some assets may not be totally evisercated.

Scottish gamekeeper Russell Mason receives derisory sentence for brutal killing of a Goshawk ⚖️ RSPB press release, covert video, & my commentary on this case ⬇️

One of our solutions to derisk the treasury is to require each future tranche to undergo a separate on-chain governance action and review, based on the KPIs delivered in Year 1 via our dashboard. DReps vote again with full visibility into Tranche 1 performance. This is not a single approval for $75M. When Tranche 2 comes around, our public on-chain dashboard and ecosystem KPIs will answer a straightforward question: Is the Orion Fund on track to deliver on the long-term goals, or not? The data will be transparent, and the community will have everything it needs to make that call. The ecosystem outcomes and objectives we are tracking are designed to show whether the fund is materially contributing to Cardano’s growth trajectory: - On-chain activity growth: Are portfolio companies generating measurable increases in transactions, unique addresses, and fee revenue on Cardano? - TVL contribution: What has the fund’s portfolio contributed toward the $3B+ target (RWA $1.5B+ / DeFi $1.5B+)? What percentage of the way are we? (Section 4.3) - Developer and builder pipeline: How many new developers and founders entered the ecosystem through Draper University and the venture studio? Are we on track toward the 7x monthly active developer target? (Section 4.3) - Venture studio output: Were the targeted 1–2 new Cardano-native companies incubated? Were up to 8 existing projects mentored and brought value? What is their on-chain footprint? (Section 5.2) - Accelerator outcomes: Did Hacker House onboard 15 early-stage teams? Did the Growth Accelerator produce 10 investment-ready companies? Are they building on Cardano, and what KPIs do they bring? (Section 5.3) - Institutional and liquidity impact: Has the fund brought new opportunities for exchange listings, liquidity providers, or institutional attention to Cardano-native projects? -Strategic partnerships: What new integrations, institutional relationships, or cross-ecosystem bridges resulted from fund activity? Disclaimer: Please note that our response, including all communications related to the proposal, is made with reference to the disclaimers set forth in Section 12 of the proposal.