Safe investor asks Swiss watchdog to intervene in governance dispute

Investor Greenfield Capital has lodged a supervisory complaint with Switzerland’s Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA), asking the regulator to examine governance at the Safe Ecosystem Foundation after months of private engagement failed to resolve its concerns. In an open letter to the Safe community, Greenfield founding partner Jascha Samadi said the firm had researched and dialogued with the foundation for more than a year but concluded Safe would not reach its potential under current governance arrangements. Greenfield’s filing follows a series of performance and market-share indicators the firm says show Safe lagging peers. The investor highlighted second-quarter revenue of $1.98 million — an annualized run rate of about $8 million — which Greenfield says is far below a $20 million expectation for 2026. Safe itself reported over $10 million in project-wide annualized revenue at the end of 2025 and has said it aims to break even and double revenue in 2026, with a longer-term target of $100 million in annual recurring revenue by 2030. Beyond revenue, Greenfield pointed to asset and stablecoin metrics that it says reflect erosion of Safe’s market position. According to the firm, total value held in Safe accounts fell from $66 billion in January 2024 to $30 billion by August 2026, a decline of more than 50%, while total DeFi total value locked rose roughly 40% in the same interval. Greenfield also noted that overall stablecoin supply climbed about 135%, but stablecoins held in Safes on Ethereum grew only 11%, and Safe’s share of USDC in circulation decreased from 12.8% to 2.5%. A central element of Greenfield’s complaint is governance. The firm says the foundation board lacks independent members with experienced decision-making backgrounds and alleges potential conflicts of interest involving board members, including Stefan George’s role at Gnosis and Richard Meissner’s ties to companies building and operating Safe products. Greenfield says it spent months requesting the foundation replace George and expand the board with externally recruited, independent directors with expertise in finance, risk and business strategy, and is now asking the ESA to determine whether corrective action is warranted.