Project and Team
Description of Project
A narrative description of the purpose of the project and its operation in layman's terms is provided.
Gearbox Protocol is building DeFi’s credit layer through its permissionl ess lending arc hitecture. Purpose-built for institutions and curators to launch bespoke lending markets that bring users the opportunity to earn passive yields and access native leverage across DeFi with Gearbox. Powered by credit account abstraction, battle-tested since 2021.
Disclosure of Revenue Streams
A narrative description of the Project's primary sources of revenue is provided, broken out by entity (e.g. Foundation, Labs, DAOs, or other).
Gearbox effectively has 3 sources of revenue
- Borrower Interest Fees: Gearbox takes a 10-25% cut from interest paid by borrowers.
- Liquidation Fees: 0.5-1.5% of liquidated amounts go to the DAO treasury.
- Treasury Yield: The DAO lends its revenue to the Gearbox lending pools to generate additional yield
Equity-Token Relationship
The Project must clearly disclose the rights, value accrual mechanisms, and distinctions between token holders and DevCo equity holders. Any value allocated specifically to equity holders (e.g., dividends, profit-sharing) must be communicated separately from value accruing to token holders.
Gearbox Protocol has no equity holders, only an onchain DAO governed by GEAR token holders. All value generated by the protocol accrues to the DAO and, by extension, to GEAR holders. The DAO has appointed a legal wrapper to handle offchain operations such as real-world payments and contracts. This entity holds no equity, has no claim on protocol revenue, and exists solely to execute DAO-approved actions that require real-world interfacing. Since there is no DevCo or equity structure capturing value, there is no divergence between token holders and equity holders to disclose.
Disclosure of Advisory Billings to the Foundation
If core team members are compensated by any Tokens allocated to the Foundation through advisory services or similar agreements, or by any other payment method (i.e. fiat), these payments must be disclosed. Note, foundation team members known and exclusively compensated by the Foundation are excluded.
Gearbox contributors are not compensated by a Foundation. Instead, they are paid directly through the Gearbox DAO treasury, with all payments transparently disclosed in monthly reports on our Notion, maintained since December'21. These payments are approved annually through a DAO-wide budget vote, the February 2025-26 budget proposal can be found here: https://snapshot.box/#/s:gearbox.eth/proposal/0xe7ab701c9f47fa881b5983f19c04228d7129e9564ded977091efaa6fda099cf5 Any payments made to the legal wrapper for executing DAO-approved real-world actions are also authorized by the DAO and disclosed in quarterly updates in the Discord channel#legal-foundation: https://discord.com/channels/841203475606011905/1118842281726853131
Known Project Team
The identities of key team members (e.g., founders, CEO, CTO, COO of Labs, President of Foundation, etc.) are publicly disclosed.
The identities of the key team members, Ivan (co-founder), MikhaelLazarov (Founder and CTO) and Ilgiz (co-founder) are publicly disclosed.
Token Supply and Allocation
Governance & Token Documentation Provided
The Project must provide publicly accessible documentation covering the Token's governance rights, rights to value accrual, any additional utility, and the mechanism by which token governance is implemented (e.g. an insider multi-sig).
GEAR token holders govern the Gearbox Protocol through an onchain DAO using a delegated voting model. They can propose and vote on major decisions, including parameter changes, treasury allocations, new market deployments, funding, and protocol upgrades. Governance decisions are made via Snapshot, while onchain execution is carried out by a DAO-elected multisig. The GEAR token accrues value through an LP buyback model where 25% of the DAO revenue is utilised to buyback the GEAR/ETH LP positions on our Uniswap V2 pool. Governance Rights & Mechanism: A detailed overview of GEAR’s governance rights and delegated voting model is available at: https://docs.gearbox.finance/governance/setup Multisig Structure: Details on the DAO-selected multisigs, their responsibilities, and onboarding process can be found at: https://docs.gearbox.finance/governance/setup/guards-multisigs Value Accrual: The GEAR token’s value accrual mechanism is outlined in the recently approved governance proposal here: https://snapshot.box/#/s:gearbox.eth/proposal/0xaf930dd571a05e150ebb29c32bad04299a21b5486257c67c42056e57b3e5edfb
Initial Allocation
Disclosed information explaining the launch and initial supply that includes: the total number of tokens issued, the category of the recipient (team, investor, foundation, community), the total supply of the token and if it is capped, and the initial vesting schedule.
The total supply of GEAR is 10B and is a hard cap. Its distribution and schedule have been detailed below and the public document link is attached
A. Community DAO Portion
~58% (~5.8 billion GEAR) DAO Treasury Multisig: 51% direct, managed by DAO. DAO Round Part 1: 2.766%, locked until July 15, 2023 → vested by July 2024 DAO Round Part 2: 1.057%, locked until September 15, 2023 → vested by September 2024 Credit Account Mining: 5% – distributed to ~5,000 participants, no vesting Community Testers: ~1.085%, no vesting Early Discord members: ~0.348%, no vesting Retroactive rewards (2021 testers): ~0.5%, no vesting
B. Initial External Contributors
1.28% (~128 million GEAR) Locked for 12‑month post-launch, vesting over 18 months (completes by June 2024)
C. Early Backers (Pre‑DAO Investors)
9.20% (~920 million GEAR) 12‑month lockup from Dec 2021, vesting over next 12 months (completed Dec 2022)
D. Initial Core Contributors
20% (2 billion GEAR) Locked 12 months from launch, vesting over 18 months (ends by June 2024)
E. Initial Company Wallet
11.52% (~1.152 billion GEAR) Similarly locked 12 months from launch, vested over 18 months (completes by June 2024) Complete details available here, the token now is 100% circulating, though. https://docs.gearbox.finance/gear-token/supply-information
Vesting Insider Tokens
All Insider Token allocations (team, investor, foundation) must be transparent, per the disclosed Initial Allocation. If vesting occurs at a custodian, clearly disclose the employee categories and associated vesting schedules clearly in your documentation.
All insider token allocations, including team (20%), investors (13%), and the initial foundation allocation (11.52%), are fully transparent and publicly disclosed. For contributors who joined after the DAO launch, Gearbox offers two clearly defined token compensation structures:
- One-Year Commitment: Contributors who commit to a full year receive a token bonus equal to 2x their base pay, calculated at a fixed FDV of 150 million USD. If they leave before completing the year, they are eligible for only 0.5x of the pro-rated value. Example: A contributor with a 50,000 USD base salary would receive 100,000 USD worth of GEAR tokens at a 150 million USD FDV. This equals 0.066 percent of the total token supply annually. Vesting begins at the end of the year and continues for 18 months.
- No Commitment: Contributors who choose not to make a time-based commitment receive a token bonus equal to 1x their base pay, also calculated at a fixed FDV of 150 million USD. Contributors who have previously fulfilled a year long commitment period receive a 1.25X multiplier. Example: A contributor with a 50,000 USD base salary would receive 50,000 USD worth of GEAR tokens, equal to 0.033 percent of the token supply annually. Vesting begins at the end of each quarter and completes over 12 months. The total annual allocation for contributor incentives is capped at 0.5 percent of the overall token supply. These terms, along with the full allocation breakdown, are available at: https://docs.gearbox.finance/gear-token/supply-information
Labelled Unissued Token Wallets
Addresses that hold any Unissued Tokens (e.g. foundation, future contributors, treasury) must be publicly labelled (address listed in docs) and be held in distinct wallets. This includes the foundation allocation. The party (e.g. team, foundation, DAO) that controls the funds must also be disclosed.
Gearbox DAO has no unissued tokens remaining. The entire token supply is already in circulation. Of this, 35 percent is held by the DAO in its public treasury. These tokens are used for new contributor incentives, community rewards, and expanding community ownership. The treasury wallet is publicly accessible here: https://etherscan.io/address/0x7b065fcb0760df0cea8cfd144e08554f3cea73d1 This treasury is the only operational wallet, and all token-related actions are executed through it. The address used by the pre-DAO company, before the DAO was formed, can be found here: https://etherscan.io/address/0xa8b1d00b1d224e83760963e361b7f676581a622d You can find these details in the official documentation: https://docs.gearbox.finance/gear-token/supply-information Our only operational wallet is the DAO treasury, all expenditures are processed through it. For real world expenditures, we have a legal wrapper that processes payments after a GIP is cleared. This wrapper is paid by the treasury address as well. There was a Pre-DAO company which has been dissolved but it still holds GEAR from it's allocation. This company is not operationally relevant to the DAO, though, have added its address as well.
Airdrop Process
The project must disclose all airdrop eligibility criteria clearly and provide a full CSV list of recipients, including addresses and amount received.
Gearbox DAO’s airdrop eligibility criteria were publicly disclosed in advance. The distribution was based on the following:
- Credit Account Miners: Five percent of the total token supply was allocated to 5,000 early users who participated in Credit Account mining. Each eligible user received 100,000 GEAR tokens. Details and snapshot available at: https://github.com/Gearbox-protocol/launch-snapshot/tree/master/credit_account_snapshot
- Early Kovan Testers and Discord Members: A total of 1.433 percent of the supply was allocated to early community members, including Kovan testers and Discord participants. CSV list of recipients and allocations:: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1apWu2STg_xOa2qBWfAnpufhDoiATR5k9MHckEDtJFV4/edit?usp=sharing Additional Details: https://medium.com/gearbox-protocol/gear-token-not-yet-live-and-governance-reverse-voting-escrow-75f367985397
Locked Staking Reward to Insiders
Disclose information on insiders (Team, Investors, Foundation, Advisors) tokens that are locked and can earn rewards.
All GEAR tokens are fully unlocked. As a result, there are no locked tokens earning rewards. GEAR does not generate direct rewards for holders. Instead, the DAO runs an LP buyback program designed to accrue value to all GEAR tokens.
Future Token Issuance
The project commits that any future token issuance (e.g., minting or emissions outside scheduled vesting) will be publicly disclosed and justified on an official platform (e.g., governance forum, blog, or docs).
Gearbox DAO has no plans to mint additional tokens or increase emissions beyond the scheduled vesting. All token allocations come solely from the DAO treasury's existing share. Any use of these tokens follows a clear governance process that begins with discussion in the Discord forum, followed by a formal governance proposal (GIP) and execution by the DAO-elected multisig. Snapshot proposals are available at: https://snapshot.org/#/gearbox.eth Governance discussion forum: https://discord.com/channels/841203475606011905/1118847490045792317
Future & Related Token Launches
The team discloses all tokens launched by its key team members in the past and explicitly lays out its philosophy around launching new tokens, related to the project or otherwise. (e.g. "We do not plan to launch additional tokens" or "Any additional tokens will be given 1:1 to existing token holders who can then vote on proposals submitted by the management team.")
The contributors represent that they have no intention to launch additional tokens. To the best of our understanding, no contributors have previously launched any tokens.
Transactions & Market Structure
Insider & Related Person Transactions
The project commits to disclosing any material Related Party & Insider Transaction within 30 days and includes: The nature of the transaction, the Related Person, the basis on which the person is a Related Person, and the number of tokens involved in the transaction. This includes tokens issued by the foundation.
Prior Token Sales & Fundraising
Disclosed information of previous fundraising rounds, material OTC rounds to investors, or discounted market maker sales involving the Project and its Token that includes: the date of sale, number of tokens sold, and the vesting schedule of these tokens. The Project commits to disclosing any material OTC deal involving token sales and purchases by the foundation within 30 days.
The GEAR raises details are as below: Seed Round (June 2021): Rais ed $2.3M at $0.0025/GEAR, ~$25M valuation. DAO Round Part 1 (Aug 2022): Raised $4.15M at $0.015/GEAR, ~$150M va luation. https://snapshot.box/#/s:gearbox.eth/proposal/0x3e51eb2ced35e3ce61a83333f0a5cedf4cc7380e71a8f7a493d2e0f46073f85b DAO Round Part 2 (Sept 2022): Raised $1.59M at $0.015/GEAR, continuing at the same valuation and terms as Part 1. https://snapshot.box/#/s:gearbox.eth/proposal/0xe10c53c3a1abb709ca724b8a9959c2afd84859397ec97956eb990b6538334137
Transparent Market Maker Deals & Exchange Listings
Projects must disclose key details of market making and centralized exchange agreements affecting token liquidity, including: names of all market makers & centralized exchanges involved, the token allocation for each (as % of total supply), and the duration of each agreement.
The DAO has no market-making or centralized exchange agreements in place. Gearbox DAO cannot proceed with any such arrangements without a publicly posted GIP. Any future changes will be fully disclosed and must follow the established governance process.
Financial Disclosure
Disclosure of Assets and Cash Flow
The Project commits to providing updates to token holders on a quarterly basis via forum posts, live dashboards, or reports that cover core project KPIs, changes to Token supply or allocations, and disclosure of top line revenue and expenses. The Project may engage third-party contractors to prepare and deliver these updates.
The Gearbox DAO commits to maintaining transparency and ensuring that token holders have access to comprehensive reporting on DAO activities and financials. Current efforts include: Monthly Spending and Contributor Reports, Maintained since December 2021 https://gearboxprotocol.notion.site/Monthly-Spending-Reports-6849871a9bae44dfb903531c0a997e8f Gearbox Metrics Dashboard https://dune.com/gearbox_fi/gearbox-protocol Revenue and Fee Dashboard https://gearbox.tokenlogic.xyz/revenue Expenses and Runway Dashboard https://gearbox.tokenlogic.xyz/runway In addition to these, the DAO also publishes periodic reports covering strategic direction, protocol changes, and self-assessment under what is referred to as the OBRA model. The 2024 report is available here: https://blog.gearbox.fi/gearbox-protocol-2024-recap-and-wind-of-change/
Public Token Holder Relations Reports
The foundation's assets or working capital are held onchain and publicly labelled, providing the ability to track asset holdings, revenue, and expenses. Or, the foundation publishes a quarterly, publicly available financial report of its assets, working capital, revenue and expenses.
All assets and working capital of the Gearbox DAO are held onchain in are publicly labeled treasury wallets, allowing anyone to transparently track holdings, revenue, and expenses. There is no separate foundation entity holding assets. In addition, the DAO regularly publishes detailed financial reports, including revenue, expenses, and working capital data, through public dashboards and quarterly updates: DAO Treasury: https://etherscan.io/address/0x7b065fcb0760df0cea8cfd144e08554f3cea73d1 Revenue Dashboard: https://gearbox.tokenlogic.xyz/revenue Expenses and Runway Report: https://gearbox.tokenlogic.xyz/runway Monthly Spending Reports: https://gearboxprotocol.notion.site/Monthly-Spending-Reports-6849871a9bae44dfb903531c0a997e8f These resources ensure continuous transparency and accountability to the community.
This Token Transparency Filing is provided for general informational purposes only. Blockworks reviews completeness only and does not verify or warrant the accuracy of individual answers. Gearbox is solely responsible for the content, accuracy, and legality of its disclosures.