September 2026 Update
Key Insights
- Incident Response Through Governance. Following the August 27 MAMO market incident on Base, MIP-X66 passed with ~98.5% support and was executed in early September. It cut projected interest accrual on bad debt from ~$338.8K to ~$50.3K per month, and ~$247K of protocol-owned reserves were repaid into the Base USDC Core Market.
- Risk-Off Parameters and Conditions for Reopening Base Borrowing. Anthias’ September 15 recommendations, implemented through MIP-X68, lowered collateral factors for WELL, MORPHO, and AERO on Base and VELO on OP Mainnet, and set out the conditions that would need to be met before borrowing on Base is re-enabled.
- A Clean Sweep for Onchain Proposals. All three onchain proposals (MIP-X66, MIP-X67, and MIP-X68) passed and were executed with ~99% of votes cast in favor, up from August’s 58.8% average support rate after MIP-B60 did not pass.
Primer
The monthly governance recap serves as a compendium of key governance updates for the preceding month. This update covers Moonwell governance activities for September 2026.
Key Metrics
- 3 onchain proposals
- 0 Snapshot proposals
- 2 new forum topics
The number of active voters for onchain proposals averaged 186, with a minimum of 126 and a maximum of 281.
Voting data was obtained from @Jor-el’s Moonwell Dashboard.
This month, there were no Snapshot signal votes.
At 310 voters, the USDS proposal in January 2025 received the highest number of votes for a Moonwell Snapshot proposal.
Success Insights:
- Onchain: The onchain proposals in September had a 100% success rate.
- Offchain: N/A
Browse all of the proposals here.
Other Governance Metrics
Proposal Participation
Source: @Jor-el’s dashboard
September had a monthly average of 186 onchain voters. August had 174, July had 182, June had 194, May had 220, and April had 245. Proposal volume held steady at three onchain proposals, matching August. MIP-X67’s first submission was cancelled and resubmitted in corrected form before voting. Average per-proposal “For” support across September’s proposals was ~162M WELL (August: ~122M WELL), with an average support rate of 99.0% (August: 58.8%). The rebound reflects all three proposals passing with near-unanimous support, compared with MIP-B60’s defeat in August.
Top Delegate Voting Power & Concentration
Source: @Jor-el’s dashboard
As of the end of September, the dashboard reports 1.53B WELL of total delegated voting power across 13.8K delegates (August: 1.68B WELL across 13.8K delegates), with ~333.8M WELL (~21.8%) self-delegated (August: ~22.4%). The two largest delegates control roughly 15.6% of total voting power between them (August: 13.45%). Total all-time onchain votes cast across the protocol now stands at 69.1K (August: 67.8K).
Main Governance Initiatives in September
Incident Response and USDC Market Recapitalization
MIP-X66 was a time-sensitive proposal that Anthias submitted in response to the 08/27/2026 MAMO market incident on Base. It went onchain on Monday, August 31 and passed at the start of September. Drawing on Anthias’ risk parameter and reserve recommendations, it made three changes:
- It updated risk parameters for markets with limited liquidity, elevated oracle risk, or ongoing deprecation.
- It updated interest rate models on Base to cut projected interest accrual on outstanding bad debt from ~$338,785 to ~$50,273 per month.
- It withdrew available protocol reserves on Base and OP Mainnet for conversion to USDC and recapitalization of the Base USDC market.
The reserve withdrawals applied only to protocol-owned assets. After execution, ~$247K of protocol reserves was repaid into the USDC Core Market on Base, as announced on September 8. Recovery efforts continue: on the September governance call, Luke shared that contributors are working with law enforcement and security firm zeroShadow to recover the funds, which remain on Ethereum mainnet.
Monthly Rewards Distribution
MIP-X67, the automated monthly liquidity incentive proposal, went onchain on Wednesday, September 9, after a first submission was cancelled and resubmitted with a corrected batch. It was executed mid-month and sets reward speeds for September 15 – October 15. On Base, Core Market rewards went to USDC, cbBTC, ETH, and wstETH suppliers, with no borrowing rewards. On Ethereum, supply- and borrow-side APRs increased for ETH, USDC, USDT, and cbBTC.
Risk Parameters and the Path to Re-enabling Borrowing on Base
On September 15, Anthias published their risk parameter recommendations and conditions for re-enabling borrowing on Base. For Base, they recommended lowering the WELL collateral factor from 65% to 55%, and MORPHO and AERO from 65% to 60%. For OP Mainnet, they recommended lowering VELO from 62% to 60%. These changes reflect a more conservative stance on thinly traded collateral.
The post also explains why borrowing remains restricted on Base. USDC, EURC, and other stressed markets have little to no available liquidity, and reopening too early could let withdrawal pressure in one market drain liquidity from others. Anthias’ conditions for re-enabling borrowing are sustained liquidity in USDC and the other stressed markets, and evidence that liquidations will function under stress. Following MIP-X66’s interest rate updates, borrow APYs in the affected markets sit near 20% (~17.4% for USDC, ~19.3% for EURC).
MIP-X68 implemented the collateral factor changes. It went onchain on September 23, passed with ~99.6% support, and was executed on September 27.
AERO and VELO Token Migration
On the September governance call, Anthias explained that Aerodrome is upgrading its token, allowing legacy AERO and VELO to be redeemed for the new AERO token. Anthias will pause supplies to the AERO market on Base and the VELO market on OP Mainnet (borrows are already paused). The aim is to launch a new core market for the new token and gradually sunset the old markets as legacy liquidity declines. Moonwell has since shared plans for a phased wind-down of the AERO Core Market on Base. AERO and VELO users can repay, withdraw, and convert at their convenience once Aerodrome announces its conversion process.
Delegate Digest
Super Delegates
| Delegate | Delegation Pitch | Delegation Page | Delegated Amount | Proposals Created | Completed their role’s minimum requirements this month? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coolhorsegirl | Link | Link | 56.3K WELL | 20 | Yes |
| PGov | Link | Link | 1M WELL | 1 | Yes |
| Jor-el | Link | Link | 1M WELL | 1 | Yes |
| Chidi | Link | Link | 1M WELL | 1 | Yes |
| Fechuky | Link | Link | 966.0K WELL | 10 | Yes |
Mid-Tier Delegates
| Delegate | Delegation Pitch | Delegation Page | Delegated Amount | Proposals Created | Completed their role’s minimum requirements this month? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kimchiblock | Link | Link | 672 WELL | 0 | No |
| DAOplomats | Link | Link | 30 WELL | 0 | No |
| Maylosan | Link | Link | 12.9K WELL | 0 | No |
| FranklinDAO | Link | Link | 584 WELL | 0 | No |
Delegated amounts are from @Jor-el’s Delegate Tracker as of September 30. Earlier reports used a different source, so month-to-month comparisons of this column aren’t like-for-like.
Junior Delegates
Delegate Voting Rate
| Delegate | Number of Proposals Voted On | This Month’s Voting Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Coolhorsegirl | 3/3 | 100% |
| PGov | 3/3 | 100% |
| Jor-el | 3/3 | 100% |
| Chidi | 3/3 | 100% |
| Fechuky | 3/3 | 100% |
| Kimchiblock | 0/3 | 0% |
| DAOplomats | 1/3 | 33% |
| Maylosan | 0/3 | 0% |
| FranklinDAO | 0/3 | 0% |
You can read more about the requirements to join each delegate tier and each tier’s contribution minimums here.
Delegate Highlights
- Chidi and PGov continued to publish rationale for their votes on their delegate pitches, including on MIP-X66 and MIP-X67 (Chidi, PGov).
- All five Super Delegates had a 100% voting rate this month, voting on each of MIP-X66, MIP-X67, and MIP-X68.
Community Overview
| Social Channel | Data |
|---|---|
| Main X account | 55.2K Followers (+0.55%) |
| Governance X account | 1,475 Followers (+1.72%) |
| Discord | 12,317 Members (+0.08%) |
| Announcements Telegram | 563 Members (-0.35%) |
| Chat Telegram | 6,763 Members (+4.32%) |
Community Trends
September’s governance activity centered on the protocol’s response to the MAMO incident. All three onchain proposals dealt with incident recovery, rewards under the current risk-off posture, or collateral risk. According to Anthias’ weekly updates, liquidations on Base fell from 918 events (~$2.39M in collateral seized) in the week following the incident to between 31 and 86 events per week for the rest of the month. On the forum, community members opened threads requesting a recovery plan for post-incident depositors and a fair withdrawal mechanism for the Base mUSDC market, and discussion of cbETH remediation continued. Chat Telegram membership rose ~4.3% on the month, while Discord and the Announcements Telegram were roughly flat.