The Arbitrum Foundation just put a $43.5 million price tag on keeping the lights on through 2027. The formal governance proposal, submitted on May 22, requests $16 million in real-world assets and stablecoins, 1,740 ETH, and 230 million ARB tokens to fund everything from core infrastructure to ecosystem development.
Here’s the thing: the Arbitrum DAO only generated $23.49 million in gross profit during 2025. Asking for roughly 1.85 times your annual revenue to cover next year’s expenses is, to put it mildly, a conversation starter.
The numbers that matter
The Foundation projects $27.6 million in operating expenses for 2027, plus an additional 244.9 million ARB tokens earmarked for various costs. More than half of the budget, about 54%, goes toward technical infrastructure, security, and hosting for the Arbitrum One and Nova networks.
The 2025 revenue of $23.49 million came from transaction fees, a mechanism called Timeboost, and expansion programs. One DeFi analyst flagged that the Foundation would effectively be operating at approximately 2.3 times its 2025 revenue level if the proposal passes.
