CoW DAO Monthly Recap: January 2026

Happy New Year, CoW herd! 🐮

2026 is off to a running start. From expanding to new chains to renewing our commitment to community governance, January set the pace for what promises to be a massive year for intent-based trading.

Here is everything that happened in the CoW ecosystem this month.

Product & Integrations

CoW Swap Lands on Plasma

We kicked off the year by becoming the first DEX aggregator live on Plasma Network. This launch brings CoW Protocol's signature gasless, MEV-protected trading experience to Plasma's stablecoin-focused ecosystem.

• Read the full announcement here.

MEV Blocker Sale

The MEV Blocker sale has successfully concluded. We saw strong demand and incredible support from the community, validating our mission to protect users from the dark forest of Ethereum.

New Integrations

CoW Protocol is now powering more flows across the ecosystem. This month we shipped integrations with:

• HeyElsaAI: Bringing intent-based swaps to AI agents.

• Ondo Finance: Streamlining institutional-grade asset swaps.

• TokenPocket: Expanding mobile access to CoW Swap.

Protocol Economics & Solver Rewards

We closed out 2025 with strong numbers regarding solver incentives and token buybacks.

• 2025 Review: The protocol generated net buy pressure of 4.7M COW (0.5% of total supply) over the course of the year.

• Buybacks vs. Emissions: We emitted 32.9M COW in solver rewards while buying back 37.6M COW via protocol revenue.

• Consistency: The protocol saw net buy pressure in 11 out of 12 months in 2025.

Looking ahead to 2026, we project solver emissions to reach 60M-72M $COW. Based on current revenue models, we do not foresee any need to request extra funds from the DAO to run these incentives-buybacks are expected to remain fully sustainable.

Governance

The DAO has been active with key votes ensuring our operational stability for the year ahead.

• CIP-82 (Approved): The CoW DAO Grants Program has been renewed for 2026, ensuring we continue to fund the builders and researchers pushing our ecosystem forward.

• CIP-83 (Approved): The community has approved the renewal of the Core Team Grant Allocation, this time with stricter, performance-linked milestones to align contributor incentives with protocol success.

Join the ongoing discussions on grant structures and DAO incentives on the forum.

Grants Program: Value Distribution RFP

We are taking a major step toward defining the protocol's economic future. The Grants Program has published a Request for Proposal (RFP) on Value Distribution.

Note: Submissions are now closed, and proposals are currently under review.

This work is a key part of building CoW Protocol’s long-term sustainability.

• Read the RFP: RFP: CoW Value Distribution Mechanism

Community & Visibility

Near Intents Day: Anna represented CoW DAO on the panel at Near Intents Day, discussing the future of intent-based architectures and how CoW DAO is leading the charge on UX abstraction.

Community Presence: You may have noticed faster responses and more activity across our Discord and Twitter. We have ramped up our community presence to ensure you get the support and routing you need, faster than ever.

Team Updates

The herd is growing! Please welcome our new BD Lead, Community Manager, DevOps Engineer and Senior Frontend Engineer to the team.

We are still looking for top talent to join us. Current open roles include:

• Research Team Lead

• Smart Contract Engineer

• Senior Visual Designer

Apply here: cow.fi/careers

Know someone who’s not just looking for a job, but a real opportunity to grow?

Refer them and earn up to $6,000 in USDC or USD. → https://cow.fi/careers/refer-to-earn

Here's to a bullish (and bullish-on-CoW-Protocol) February.

Keep milking it, CoW DAO