Early Safe investor asks Swiss regulator to review foundation board

Greenfield Capital, an early investor in multisig wallet Safe, has filed a supervisory complaint with Switzerland's Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) concerning the Safe Ecosystem Foundation. Jascha Samadi, Greenfield's founding partner, said in an open letter posted on the foundation's official forum on Oct. 4 that the firm filed the complaint "this week," arguing that the board is not independent.

Over $90 million raised, token down 95%

Greenfield said it invested in 2022 when Safe was spun off from Gnosis and has not sold a single SAFE token since. According to the letter, Safe raised about $93.5 million in 2022, and roughly $60 million of that has been spent, based on the foundation's May 2026 disclosures under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. About $34 million remains in cash. Over the same period, the SAFE token lost more than 95% of its value, Greenfield said.

Greenfield also took issue with revenue. The foundation reported more than $10 million in annualized revenue at the end of 2025, but Q2 2026 revenue was $1.98 million, an annualized run-rate of roughly $8 million, the letter said. Assets held in Safe accounts fell from $66 billion in January 2024 to about $30 billion in August 2026, and Safe's share of circulating USDC dropped from 12.8% to 2.5%, according to the letter. It added that total stablecoin supply grew about 135%, from roughly $130 billion to more than $300 billion, over the same period, while stablecoins held in Safe accounts on Ethereum mainnet rose only 11%, from $5.9 billion to $6.6 billion.

What happened on the board after the Bybit hack

The February 2025 Bybit hack, in which about $1.5 billion in crypto was stolen, originated in the compromised development environment of the Safe wallet developer. Greenfield alleged that shortly afterward, Stefan George, a Gnosis co-founder and Safe foundation board member, and fellow Gnosis co-founder Martin Köppelmann demanded that other board members and co-founders give up a significant portion of their SAFE holdings, threatening that Gnosis would otherwise sell its entire SAFE position, about 10% of total supply. Greenfield said the account came from different sources. According to the letter, the board members and co-founders accepted the demand and the tokens were redistributed.

Greenfield also said George has a conflict of interest because Gnosis launched two wallet products that competed with Safe. It argued that Richard Meissner, appointed to the board in April 2026, is unsuitable because he was co-managing director of the company that operated the Safe wallet at the time of the hack. The foundation's deed requires at least three board members, but the board had only two from September 2025 to April 2026, Greenfield said. The current board has three members, including George and Meissner.

Board change, not control, is the ask

Greenfield made three demands: restructure the foundation's governance, replace George, and bring in external independent directors with experience in finance, security and law. "We never requested a Greenfield seat on the board," the firm said, adding that the complaint is not a lawsuit against individuals or an attempt to take control of Safe. The foundation set up an advisory "Strategy Commission" with outside participants in June 2026, but Greenfield said it has no authority to change the board. Greenfield said it will keep working with Safe Labs, the operating team.

The ESA supervises Swiss foundations of national or international significance to ensure they are run in line with the law and their articles, and can order corrective measures when needed. As of noon KST on Oct. 5, no rebuttal from the foundation had been posted on the Safe forum.

Trading in the 150-won range on Upbit

SAFE is listed on the Korean won markets of Upbit and Bithumb. At 12:31 p.m. KST on Oct. 5, SAFE traded at 159 won on Upbit, up 3.9% from the previous day. That is about 72% below its 52-week high of 565 won set a year earlier, on Oct. 7, 2025. At the same time, SAFE was 158 won on Bithumb, and the OKX price converted to won was about 158 won, putting the gap between Korean and overseas prices within 1%.