CoW DAO Monthly Recap: May 2026

May was a month for shipping. New infrastructure, a major tokenomics conversation opened, the herd crossed $201B in cumulative volume — and a chapter of accountability was quietly, properly closed.

Let's get into it.

May by the Numbers

• Monthly Volume - $2.2B

• Cumulative All-Time Volume - $202.14B

• Monthly Trades - 241,368

• Active Wallets - 40.9k

• New Wallets - 26.3k

• Returning Wallets - 14.6k

• DEX Aggregator Market Share - 16.8% (2nd place)

All-time milestones:

• $202.1B volume
• 12.3M trades
• 708.1K wallets
• $42M DAO revenue
• $1.21B surplus returned to users

On market share: CoW Protocol sits at 16.8% of DEX aggregator volume across all supported chains in May — behind 0x API (18.7%) and ahead of KyberSwap (16.6%) and 1inch Fusion (14.2%). In a competitive, incentive-driven landscape, holding that position on execution quality alone is worth noting.

Intents Get an Upgrade: Atomic Bundles

On May 1, CoW Protocol launched Atomic Bundles — a reusable smart contract template that lets developers bundle multiple complex DeFi actions into a single atomic intent. Looping strategies. Repay-with-collateral. Flashloan-powered operations. All executed in one go, all protected.

This expands what an "intent" can do on CoW Protocol. Atomic Bundles turn intents into composable building blocks that allow for more sophisticated on-chain strategies — submitted as a single signed order, executed atomically by solvers competing for the best outcome.

For developers building the next wave of DeFi products, this is the kind of primitive that opens new design space. Watch what gets built on top of it.

CoW Protocol Comes to Euler

Euler has integrated CoW Protocol as the swap execution layer for cross-asset position actions on Ethereum mainnet. Multiply positions, swap collateral, repay debt from collateral — all with MEV-protected execution built directly into the flow, powered by Atomic Bundles. Sign one intent. Solvers compete for execution. Position updates automatically.

Affiliate Program: $100M in Referred Volume

The CoW Swap Affiliate Program — approved via CIP-84 in March, launched in April — has crossed $100M in total referred volume. Rewards are flowing to affiliates and traders alike. The program is live, it's working, and it's scaling.

Permissionless. Volume-based. Built to last.

The Tokenomics Conversation

On May 15, the Core Team published CoW DAO's Path to Value Distribution, developed with Aragon under the Value Distribution Mechanism RFP. The context matters: since April 2024, buybacks have totalled 78.6M $COW against 66.6M in solver emissions - net emissions of -12M $COW, negative every quarter. The protocol is already deflationary. But the Core Team is clear that protocol growth alone doesn't create structural token demand. Mechanism design is needed.

Three proposals are on the table: formalising solver bond requirements (20% of weekly rewards into dedicated Solver Bond Safes); a 1:1 burn trial through December 2026, estimated to permanently remove 60-85M COW; and a flexible buyback mandate giving the Core Team authority to scale purchases up to 100% of weekly revenue based on market conditions. A feedback-driven CIP is the intended next step.

Simplifying the Bonding Pool

A companion CIP-Draft proposes streamlining bonding pool operations: a flat 10% service fee for all solvers from day one, formalised Solver Bond Safes, and a cleaner path to independent operation. Less overhead, more transparency.

CIP-86: DNS Hijack Victims Made Whole

In April, cow.fi was hijacked via social engineering at the domain registrar. Around 1.2M USDC in user funds were drained during the roughly 4.5 hours the phishing site was live. The protocol itself was never compromised - but CoW DAO chose to act anyway. CIP-86, the discretionary grants program for affected users, passed on May 8 and closed May 31. Every verified claim has been paid in full. CoW DAO wasn't legally obligated to. It paid because trust is infrastructure too.

See you in June. 🐮