There is a fundamental flaw in how most decentralized exchanges work.

When you trade one token for another on a decentralized exchange (DEX). You hit "Swap," the numbers spin, and boom - you have your new assets.

But if you look closely at the fine print, something disappears during that transaction. A fee.

Usually, we don’t think much about where that money goes. We assume it just vanishes into the pockets of liquidity providers or the protocol developers. But recently, I’ve been digging into the governance logs of the STONfi DAO, and I found something fascinating.

For the last seven days, a proposal has been sitting on the governance table. A radical shift in how a decentralized organization sustains itself.

Here is the story of that proposal, and why it changes the economics of the STONfi ecosystem.

The Problem With "Printing Money"
To understand why this proposal is a big deal, we have to look at how most crypto projects work.

Historically, when a DEX wants to reward its users or build a treasury, they do what governments have done for centuries during a crisis: they print money. They issue new tokens out of thin air to pay people.

This works for a while. The line goes up. Everyone is happy.

But eventually, basic economics kicks in. If you keep printing more supply without increasing demand, the value of your currency crashes. It’s inflation. And it has killed countless DeFi projects before they even really got started.

This is the context you need to understand the decision that STONfi just made. They looked at this "print and pray" model and effectively said, No. We’re going to do this differently.

The Proposal
The proposal that was just finalized and accepted this week is called "Convert protocol fees to STON and GEMSTON tokens."

It sounds boring. It is not.

Here is the mechanism they just built:

Instead of just letting fees sit there or distributing them solely as raw revenue, the protocol is now going to take up to 50% of the collected fees (initially from TON and USDT) and use them to go out into the open market and buy their own tokens.

Think of it like a giant vacuum cleaner.

Every time the protocol makes money from activity (from people trading and using the platform) that revenue is used to suck up STON and GEMSTON tokens from the market.

These acquired tokens aren't burned or destroyed; they are moved into the DAO's treasury.

Why This is "Real Yield"

I spent some time looking at the mechanics of this, and it reminds me of something we see in traditional finance called a "stock buyback."

It’s when a profitable company uses its cash to buy its own shares, effectively investing in itself and signaling to the market, We believe this thing has value.

But in the context of a DAO, it’s even more powerful.

1- The STON Token: This is the governance token. By buying this back, the protocol is consolidating voting power and ensuring that the treasury holds the keys to the platform's future.

2- The GEMSTON Token: This is the engagement token. It doesn’t have voting rights, but it’s the fuel that keeps the community active.

By constantly buying these two assets with real revenue (fees from TON and USDT), the protocol creates a constant, robotic buyer in the market. It’s not relying on hype. It’s not relying on a bull market. It’s relying on the actual usage of the product.

If people trade on STONfi, the protocol makes money. If the protocol makes money, it buys STON and GEMSTON. The loop closes.

The Vote
I looked at the data from the last 7 days.
Proposals Finalized: 1
Accepted: 1

The community saw this mechanism and said "Yes."

This is significant because it marks a transition from a "growth at all costs" startup mentality to a "sustainable economy" mentality. The proposal emphasized transparency and specified that these funds are dedicated to the treasury for future DAO decisions.

It’s a sign of maturity.

The Big Picture
We often get distracted by the noise in this industry—the memecoins, the drama, the price charts. But the real story is usually found in the governance forums, in the boring proposals that decide how the plumbing works.

STONfi just flipped a switch. They turned their protocol from a passive service into an active participant in their own economy. They are converting fees into long-term value.

And in a world of inflation and printed money, that is a mechanism worth paying attention to.

If you want to track the actual governance updates as they happen, the STONfi team shares them immediately on their DAO Updates channel. It’s a raw feed of the decisions shaping this ecosystem.

#DAO $TON