Capital from the 2016 DAO exploit will fund grants and staking yields to strengthen Ethereum security. Ethereum is repurposing unclaimed funds from the infamous 2016 DAO hack to establish a roughly $220 million endowment aimed at strengthening security across the ecosystem. The initiative, called the DAO Security Fund, will direct capital toward audits, infrastructure, incident response, and user protection as Ethereum scales. Nearly a decade later, funds that were originally set aside for edge case refunds are being put to work to improve network security. The DAO Security Fund is also part of the Ethereum Foundation’s broader Trillion Dollar Security initiative, reflecting growing concern over phishing attacks, wallet drains, and operational risks as Ethereum matures into a global financial layer.