NAV Calculation Methodology

How NAVgator calculates Net Asset Value for MetaDAO futarchy tokens. Every number on the dashboard traces back to the formulas below.

The Core Formula

NAV per Token = Treasury Value / Effective Supply

Treasury Value is the total USD value of all assets the DAO controls — across wallets, AMMs, and liquidity positions.

Effective Supply is the number of tokens that could realistically be sold on the open market — total supply minus everything that's locked, paired, or otherwise out of circulation.

If NAV is $0.50 and the token trades at $0.40, the market is pricing it at a 20% discount to its treasury backing.

Treasury Value

We sum every asset the DAO controls, converted to USD. Each MetaDAO project typically has a DAO treasury wallet, a futarchy AMM (or combinator pool), and a Meteora liquidity position. We read the stablecoin, SOL, and yield-bearing balances in each.

ComponentDescription
DAO wallet stablecoinsUSDC, USD*, and USDv held in the project's DAO treasury wallet
Fut LP stablecoinsStablecoins in the Fut LP or combinator pool — MetaDAO's conditional market
Meteora LP stablecoinsStablecoin side of the DAO-owned Meteora position (DLMM or AMM v2)
SOL holdingsSOL held in DAO wallet(s), converted at the live SOL/USD rate
MetaDAO multisigUSDC and SOL in the MetaDAO multisig — protocol fee revenue (META only)

How balances are read

Effective Supply

Start with the on-chain total supply. Subtract everything that isn't freely tradeable.

DeductionDescription
Team / locked tokensTokens in team performance lock wallets or migration wallets
AMM tokensProject tokens in AMM pools (futarchy AMM + Meteora LP). Paired with stablecoins already counted in the treasury — not circulating independently.
DAO-held tokensTokens held directly by the DAO treasury. The DAO isn't going to sell its own tokens on the open market.
Buyback tokensTokens acquired through market buyback programs. Deliberately removed from circulation.
Investor lockedTokens under investor vesting. Linear unlock over N months from TGE. Decreases over time.
Ambassador lockedTokens under ambassador vesting. TGE unlock + linear vest. Decreases over time.
MetaDAO fee tokensProject tokens in MetaDAO's protocol fee wallet. Revenue, not circulating.

A floor of 1 is applied to effective supply to prevent division by zero.

Why These Deductions?

The goal is to answer: what is each freely-tradeable token backed by? Including locked or paired tokens in the denominator would dilute the NAV and misrepresent the value available to open-market holders.

Proposal Vault Accounting

When a futarchy proposal goes live, half of the Fut LP's liquidity is moved into the proposal's conditional markets (pass/fail decision markets). This is standard MetaDAO behavior — the protocol splits the AMM to fund the conditional trading.

Without accounting for this, NAV would show an artificial drop when a proposal starts (half the Fut LP USDC disappears from treasury) and an artificial jump when it settles (USDC returns). NAVgator prevents this discontinuity by tracking proposal vault balances.

How it works

Practical impact

Because proposals typically last 3 days and token prices don't move dramatically in that window, the vault USDC (frozen at the creation price) closely approximates what the full Fut LP would have held. The net effect on NAV during proposal windows is usually small (<0.5%), but the accounting eliminates the artificial discontinuity at proposal start and end.

Price / NAV Ratio

P/NAV = Spot Price / NAV per Token
Premium/Discount = (Price - NAV) / NAV × 100
P/NAVMeaning
> 1.0Premium — market values the project above its treasury backing
= 1.0At NAV — price equals treasury backing per token
< 1.0Discount — market values the project below its treasury backing

A sustained discount may signal expected treasury drawdowns, governance concerns, or low confidence. A sustained premium may reflect growth expectations or speculative interest. Neither is inherently good or bad — context matters.

Treasury Health

For tokens with a monthly burn allowance (most MetaDAO projects receive a monthly USDC allocation), NAVgator calculates:

MetricDescription
Monthly allowanceThe approved monthly spend from the treasury
RunwayTreasury value ÷ monthly burn — how many months the treasury can sustain current spending
Post-ICO allocationHow much of the ICO-raised funds have been spent to date

Buyback Tracking

Some tokens run active buyback programs where the DAO purchases its own tokens on the open market.

MetricDescription
Total spentUSD value spent on buybacks
Average priceWeighted average price paid per token
Tokens acquiredTotal tokens bought back
PeriodDate range of buyback activity

Bought-back tokens are deducted from effective supply.

Data Sources

SourceWhat it provides
Helius RPCToken balances, SOL balances, on-chain supply (Solana JSON-RPC)
MetaDAO Market APIDAO token holdings, address validation, volume, liquidity
DexScreenerSpot price (primary source)
BirdeyeSpot price (fallback), OHLCV candle data
Meteora DLMM APIDLMM pool reserves
Meteora AMM v2 APIAMM v2 pool reserves
CoinGeckoBTC, SOL, ZEC reference prices

Snapshot Frequency

NAV snapshots are taken every 5 minutes via a cron job. Each snapshot records all treasury components, supply figures, and the computed NAV. Historical snapshots power the NAV overlay on charts.

Live data on the dashboard is fetched on-demand and may be slightly more current than the last snapshot.

Limitations

Per-Token NAV Breakdown

Each token has a unique set of wallets and deductions. Select a token to see exactly what feeds into its NAV calculation.

Changelog

DateChange
2026-03-15Added proposal vault accounting — tracks liquidity moved from Fut LP to conditional markets during active proposals
2026-03-12Rewrote methodology docs to reflect current state of NAVgator
2026-03-02Added MetaDAO fee wallet token deductions to effective supply for all tokens
2026-03-02Added META Meteora AMM v2 pool to treasury; relabeled META team-locked as migration wallet
2026-03-02Deleted all historical META NAV snapshots (incorrect data)
2026-02-28Removed metaHoldingTokens from effective supply deduction for all tokens
2026-02-28Added MetaDAO multisig USDC to META's treasury value