Emerging Trends: The Rise and Challenges of Decentralization Investment Funds

Recently, the concept of Decentralization Investment Fund ( Investment DAO ) has once again attracted attention. This decentralized hedge fund model, managed by artificial intelligence or real people, raises funds, makes investments, and returns profits to token holders, providing a new financing channel for hedge fund managers.

Although Investment DAOs are not a new concept, the current wave of artificial intelligence and meme coins has injected new vitality into them. This trend has gradually shifted from the Solana ecosystem to the Base public chain, emerging with some new projects.

Some platforms act as aggregators for Investment DAOs, bridging the gap between fund managers and investors. These platforms typically involve two main roles: DAO managers who are responsible for launching and managing funds, while the waiting list (WL) participants act as fundraisers.

The general process of fund operation is as follows:

1. The DAO manager issues funds on the platform and raises initial capital.
2. Whitelisted investors purchase fund shares during the presale stage.
3. The platform mints ERC20 tokens representing the DAO treasury.
4. The fund manager begins to make investment transactions.
5. Upon the expiration of the fund, investors will receive profits or bear losses according to the proportion of tokens held.

To increase transparency and security, some platforms have adopted measures such as strict KYC and multi-signature to prevent risks such as fund theft. At the same time, mechanisms such as setting up liquidity pools are implemented to ensure the value of tokens.

It is worth noting that some projects have also introduced artificial intelligence as fund managers, focusing on investments in specific verticals. For example, a certain project has launched three funds, each targeting AI agents of different market capitalization sizes.

The vision of Investment DAO is to achieve investment democratization, breaking down traditional financial barriers. However, it still faces some challenges:

1. The fund's performance is highly dependent on the capability of the DAO manager, and there is a risk of funds being stolen.
2. Some projects have a high market value to net asset ratio, and the speculative atmosphere is strong.
3. The whitelist acquisition threshold is relatively high, which is not friendly enough for ordinary investors.

Nevertheless, Investment DAOs still show great potential. In the future, we may see more specialized DAO funds targeting vertical fields and new platforms focused on addressing existing pain points. The development of this field is worth continuous attention.