Key highlights:
- Greenfield Capital has asked Switzerland’s foundation regulator to intervene in Safe’s governance after months of disputes over board composition, independence, and the project’s performance.
- The investor has also raised allegations about Gnosis’ influence over Safe, including claims that Gnosis executives pressured Safe insiders to surrender SAFE tokens after the Bybit hack.
- Greenfield says Safe’s declining revenue and wallet activity, combined with governance concerns and potential conflicts involving Gnosis-linked board members, warrant regulatory scrutiny.
Greenfield Capital has escalated its dispute with Safe Ecosystem Foundation to Switzerland’s foundation regulator after months of unsuccessful efforts to change the foundation’s governance. Back in 2022, Greenfield Capital participated as an investor in Safe’s $100 million strategic funding round, with a raft of governance issues souring the relationship.
Greenfield seeks board changes
The Safe investor is asking the Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) to
Greenfield says it spent months pushing Safe to replace Gnosis co-founder Stefan George on the board and add independent directors with expertise in finance, risk management, and business strategy. The firm noted that while George served on the board, Gnosis developed and launched two products that competed directly with Safe, a “clear conflict of interest.”
The firm disclosed that the foundation instead created a strategy committee without decision-making authority and filled existing board vacancies. In its findings, Greenfield Capital described the board as “unreceptive to critical feedback” and highlighted an “accelerating loss of senior talent.”
Conduct of the board after the Bybit hack
A more serious allegation concerns the Safe Foundation board’s conduct in the aftermath of the Bybit hack in February 2025.
At the time, the board consisted of Lukas Schor and Christoph Simmchen, two of Safe’s four co-founders and former Gnosis employees, alongside Stefan George, Gnosis’ co-founder and chief technology officer. Simmchen later left the Safe board and subsequently departed from his role with Safe.
According to information Greenfield says it obtained from multiple Safe stakeholders, George and Gnosis co-founder Martin Köppelmann demanded that Safe’s other board members and co-founders surrender a significant portion of their SAFE token holdings shortly after the Bybit hack. Greenfield alleges that the demand came with a threat that Gnosis would sell its entire SAFE position, representing roughly 10% of the token’s total supply, and publicly distance itself from the project if the other stakeholders refused.
The timing made the threat particularly consequential. Safe was dealing with the fallout from the largest hack in its history, while confidence in the project was already under severe pressure. Greenfield says the other board members and co-founders ultimately agreed to the redistribution.
Greenfield further alleges that Gnosis was able to exert material influence over how the Safe Foundation handled the Bybit incident. The firm says separate sources reported and subsequently confirmed the events to it.
The complaint focuses on the Safe Ecosystem Foundation, which oversees SafeDAO and its treasury. Greenfield has emphasized that its filing is a supervisory complaint, not a lawsuit against individual board members.
Investor questions Safe’s growth
Greenfield also linked its governance concerns to Safe’s performance against the broader crypto market.
The firm pointed to $1.98 million in second-quarter revenue, which it calculates as an $8 million annualized run rate, compared with a $20 million revenue expectation for 2026. Safe had previously reported more than $10 million in project-wide annualized revenue at the end of 2025 and targeted break-even in 2026.
Greenfield further claimed that the value held in Safe accounts declined from $66 billion in January 2024 to $30 billion in August 2026, while broader DeFi total value locked increased by about 40%.
The investor also said total stablecoin supply grew roughly 135% during the period, while stablecoins held in Safes on Ethereum increased only 11%. It said Safe’s share of circulating USDC fell from 12.8% to 2.5%.
Source:: Safe Investor Turns to Swiss Regulator After Months-Long Governance Dispute