Date: Monday, March 2, 2026, at 12:00pm ET
Hosted by: Rena COO at Stacks Endowment
Duration: ~60mins
Recording: https://x.com/i/spaces/1qJVmQQPAOwGB?s=20
1. Agenda Overview
- Treasury Committee Overview and Structure
- Stacks Labs Development Priorities
- Community Feedback Q&A
- Next Steps
2. Key Meeting Highlights
Treasury Committee Overview and Structure
- Rena introduced the first quarterly Treasury Committee office hours
- Purpose of this call: Gather community input before formal TC meeting.
- Structure of Endowment:
- Endowment handles day-to-day treasury management and funding decisions.
- Treasury Committee provides oversight and approves budget/strategic direction.
- 9-member committee appointed by community, including Alex Miller, Mitchell, Muneeb, CIO, Andrea, Jackbinswitch, Dylan, Louise, Jonathan
- Budget:
- Andrea emphasized balancing long-term building with conservative approach given current market conditions
- Operating budget aligned at just north of $26 million.
- Specific carve-outs for Stacks DeFi and staking delegations.
Stacks Labs Development Priorities - Alex Miller
- Core Focus Areas:
- Bitcoin yield expansion as #1 priority to attract users and capital.
- 100x capacity improvements to handle user influxes without performance degradation.
- WASM work to ease developer experience.
- Self-custodial Bitcoin staking development allowing Bitcoin holders to participate in staking without moving off L1.
Community Feedback Q&A Sessions
- Publius: Whether Stacks should proactively “own” the AI + crypto narrative by becoming the default chain/currency for AI agents, given that institutions are heavily AI-focused and AI-driven transactions may dominate on-chain activity in coming years.
- Response: Alex shared personal experience and at Labs, AI has been used in major ways; later Rena confirmed that AI-leaning and agent projects are already appearing in the grants pipeline and that she is giving these applications extra review and prioritization so Stacks does not miss the AI/agent opportunity.
- Jacob Brown: Support for Labs’ priorities and request for focus on higher-frequency, moderate-value use cases and better UX.
- Higher‑frequency, moderate‑value use cases (DEXes, perp DEXes, AI-related flows) in addition to “low-frequency, high-value” yield.
- Better UX by prioritizing sBTC as gas, so users don’t need to hold STX to use apps.
- Response: Alex answered that sBTC-as-gas and BTC-address abstraction remain on the roadmap but come after the core staking/yield work. Rena implicitly acknowledged these as important UX items that will be considered in prioritization.
- Diego: Need for a stronger narrative that clearly connects Stacks’ current state (Bitcoin yield, institutional focus) to a vivid picture of the future on-chain Bitcoin economy (including agents) so new users understand why to commit to Stacks long-term.
- Rena’s response: Agreed with feedback; took as actionable takeaway to work with Labs/marketing.
- TripnMonkey:
- What the Treasury Committee is doing to make the ecosystem more welcoming and to support creative/arts/games and content‑driven projects, not just DeFi/yield.
- Rena’s response: Committed to restarting DeGrants program and supporting creative projects; emphasized grants program seeks diverse applications.
- Suggested the Treasury Committee form small focused teams to proactively research and explore categories outside the core institutional/yield focus (e.g., RWA, gaming, music)
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Rena’s response: Said grants are exactly where “outside the box” ideas are surfacing and that she loves seeing applications in new categories, however committed to carrying this suggestion into TC discussions.
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Paper2Screen: Asked how the Treasury/Endowment is thinking about Real World Assets (RWA) given Davos/WEF focus and institutional moves into tokenization (e.g., BlackRock, BNY Mellon).
- Rena’s response:
- Explained that the Endowment has evaluated some RWA protocols as potential treasury investments (e.g., RWA money markets) with a strict risk‑assessment filter.
- Clarified that, beyond treasury management, Stacks is unlikely to pivot into becoming “the RWA chain” in the near term, because the focus must remain narrow on areas where Stacks is uniquely differentiated (e.g. Bitcoin staking/yield, Bitcoin DeFi, Bitcoin‑native agents).
- Committed to adding RWA as a discussion item on the Treasury Committee agenda.
- Rena’s response:
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Doctor Crow: Highlighted UX research and audience-fit problems across Web3. Asked how Stacks could better incorporate structured UX research and user studies so products match real user needs.
- Rena’s response: Asked Doctor Crow to create a post (He has already done, see post) on the Stacks Forum summarizing his thoughts. And proposed forming a UX Research working group and connecting with other UX researchers in the ecosystem.
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Cryptoblac: Inquiry about treasury/payment solution eligibility for Endowment grants.
- Rena’s response: Confirmed eligibility; encouraged application for a “Getting Started” grant in the current window and reminded that the application period closes in 10 days (March 13).
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Bolupeak: Presenting an educational web app for non-technical users. Asked if this kind of educational/onboarding tool could be supported by grants.
- Rena’s response: Aligned with Stacks’ needs; asked to submit a grant application.
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Tinderly: Asked for clarification on Community DeGrants timeline.
- Rena’s response: Clarified DeGrants Cohort 3 is wrapping up; she plans to meet with current stewards, then aims to spin up Cohort 4 toward the end of this month.
Next Steps
- Community Feedback: Items added to formal Treasury Committee meeting agenda.
- Monthly Office Hours: Continue for ongoing transparency.
- Grant Applications: Due within 10 days (March 13) for current Q1 funding cycle.
Resources & References
Call to Action
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Join the next Endowment Office Hours: Participate in discussions and share your feedback. Check the → Stacks Events Calendar for schedule.
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Apply for Grants: Submit your application by March 13 to be considered for the current funding cycle.
