Treasury spending should follow a tiered approval structure that balances speed with accountability.
Pre-TGE, define clear spending thresholds with corresponding approval requirements. A common framework:
| Spending Tier | Approval Required |
|---|---|
| Operational expenses below a threshold (e.g., <$10K) | Single authorized signer, reserved for senior team members |
| Mid-range expenditures (e.g., $10K-$100K) | Two authorized signers or project lead + finance lead |
| Major commitments (e.g., >$100K; exchange deposits, market maker capital) | Multi-sig approval or full leadership sign-off |
Key principles:
No single individual should have unilateral authority over large treasury movements. Multi-signature wallets should be standard for on-chain treasury operations, with signer thresholds that prevent both single points of failure and operational paralysis.
All spending should be documented against pre-approved budget categories. Ad hoc requests that fall outside approved categories should require explicit justification and escalated approval, particularly post-TGE when treasury preservation becomes critical.
Emergency spending authority should be pre-defined for launch week. Situations that require rapid capital deployment; unexpected exchange deposit requirements, liquidity rebalancing, security incident response, should have a pre-approved fast-track process so that speed does not come at the cost of oversight.