KeeperDAO (Rook DAO)

KeeperDAO (ROOK) was announced in 2019 as an on-chain liquidity underwriter and keeper coordination protocol on Ethereum, focused on supporting decentralized finance liquidations, arbitrage, and rebalancing. It later rebranded to Rook, positioning itself as an MEV-focused transaction settlement and coordination protocol that used specialized infrastructure to maximize transaction value for users, protocols, and market makers on Ethereum.^[1][7] Rook DAO subsequently underwent a governance crisis that culminated in a decision to dissolve Incubator DAO and distribute much of its treasury to ROOK token holders, leaving the protocol and associated products effectively inactive and the ROOK token thinly traded as of 2026.^[8][9]

History

KeeperDAO was first disclosed in December 2019 as a collaboration between crypto trading and market-making firm Amber Group and blockchain research firm Talo Systems, led by Tiantian Kullander and Taiyang Zhang respectively.^[2] The initial design framed KeeperDAO as an on-chain liquidity underwriter and keeper coordination protocol for decentralized finance, pooling capital to back liquidations, arbitrage, and rebalancing on applications such as margin trading, lending, and decentralized exchanges.^[2] Its architecture focused on solving Priority Gas Auctions (PGAs) by encouraging on-chain arbitrageurs and liquidators (“keepers”) to cooperate rather than compete in bidding wars for transaction inclusion.

In 2020 and 2021 KeeperDAO expanded its product set beyond the original pooled liquidity and keeper strategies, introducing MEV-focused mechanisms such as the Hiding Game and Coordination Game to allow users and professional searchers to redirect and share transaction value. These systems encrypted or privately routed orders so that only participating keepers could execute them, redistributing extracted MEV back to users and the protocol’s treasury. As part of aligning incentives, the ROOK governance token was launched to coordinate keepers, liquidity providers, and other participants in these games.

In 2022 the project was formally rebranded from KeeperDAO to Rook, with the team introducing the Rook Protocol as a generalized coordination and transaction settlement engine for Ethereum.^[7] Rook described itself as an “open settlement protocol” intended to route transactions through a network of professional algorithmic strategists and searchers, integrate with DeFi protocols and wallets, and return a portion of captured MEV to end users and partner applications.^[1][7]

Products or Programs

KeeperDAO’s original design centered on a pooled keeper architecture that combined a shared liquidity pool, coordinated keepers, and auxiliary contracts such as under-writers and yielders. Liquidity providers deposited assets into an on-chain pool, which keepers could borrow from within a single transaction to execute liquidations, arbitrage, and rebalancing across protocols like Aave, Compound, MakerDAO, dYdX, and decentralized exchanges.^[2] Profits from these strategies were returned to the pool, then shared between liquidity providers and the protocol’s governance mechanism. This structure allowed individual users to earn passive income from keeper strategies without operating their own infrastructure, while keepers accessed aggregated capital and were incentivized to cooperate rather than compete in Priority Gas Auctions.

Under-writer contracts extended this model to user positions on external lending protocols by “wrapping” collateralized debt positions through KeeperDAO. When positions approached liquidation, keepers could safely close or restructure them through the under-writer instead of triggering standard protocol liquidations, aiming to reduce user losses while still compensating keepers via protocol fees. Yielders were integrations that deployed idle pool assets into third-party yield-generating strategies such as lending markets or automated market makers, with governance determining allocations to balance risk and return. These components were administered through upgradeable smart contracts, allowing the protocol’s parameters and supported integrations to evolve over time.^[3]

As the project shifted toward MEV-focused coordination, KeeperDAO introduced products such as the Hiding Game and Coordination Game. The Hiding Game allowed users to submit trades through a specialized orderflow system, where orders were encrypted or routed so they could only be executed by whitelisted keepers, who would then capture and redistribute MEV. Traders could receive gasless or rebated execution, ROOK-denominated rewards, and protection from third-party MEV extraction, while a portion of the value captured from successful bundles accrued to the protocol’s treasury and ROOK holders. The Coordination Game extended these ideas to other MEV opportunities like liquidations and complex arbitrage, aligning incentives among participating searchers and liquidity providers.

Following the rebrand to Rook, the core product suite was refocused into the Rook Protocol, described as an open transaction settlement and coordination layer for Ethereum.^[7] The protocol sat between users, DeFi applications, and MEV searchers, ingesting orderflow via integrated front-ends, protocols, and wallets, then constructing bundles of transactions that maximized total extractable value while enforcing cooperative rules among participating strategists.^[1] In this model, Rook aimed to integrate directly with protocols and wallets so that users could submit swaps and other DeFi actions that were internally routed through its coordination engine. When a bundle identified profitable MEV, the protocol’s rules allocated a portion back to the initiating user or application as a rebate or gasless trade, with the remainder distributed among searchers, liquidity providers, and the ROOK-governed treasury. These products remained the focus until the governance decisions in 2023–2024 to wind down Rook DAO, after which the settlement infrastructure and associated applications fell into disuse.

Governance

In its early phase, KeeperDAO’s contracts and parameters were controlled primarily by the founding team and associated entities. Upgradeable smart contracts allowed the team to introduce new integrations, adjust incentive schemes, and modify protocol fees, while the governance mechanism and broader token-holder participation were described as evolving areas to be formalized over time.^[3] The initial governance design envisioned directing a portion of profits returned to the liquidity pool toward a governance fee, giving decision-makers influence over listings, incentive allocations, and risk management.

As the protocol and ROOK token matured, governance was restructured under Rook DAO, which used on-chain proposals and Keeper Improvement Proposals (KIPs) to manage upgrades, emissions, and treasury deployment. The DAO framework incorporated specialized roles and committees, sometimes referred to as “Sophons,” to provide technical review and coordination while leaving major strategic decisions to token-holder voting. Within this structure, ROOK functioned as a governance token: holders could submit and vote on proposals, influence the profit-sharing rules between liquidity pools, keepers, and the treasury, and shape the design of MEV games such as the Hiding Game and Coordination Game.

Governance tensions in 2023 over the use of the DAO’s sizable on-chain treasury led to KIP-44, which created Incubator DAO as a separate entity to hold and manage most of the treasury for the benefit of ROOK holders.^[8] This structure separated treasury stewardship from protocol development work, which was carried out by Rook Labs and other contributors under mandates from the Rook DAO and its associated governance processes.^[9]

ROOK itself is an ERC-20 governance token on Ethereum associated with the now-inactive Rook DAO and its historical products.^[1] The token was originally launched with a supply near 1 million units and later expanded, with metadata listing a maximum supply around 1.5 million ROOK.^[1][6] As of 2026, ROOK is largely illiquid, with thin trading volumes on a small number of decentralized markets and limited centralized exchange support, reflecting the wind-down of the underlying protocol and the completion of major treasury distributions.^[1]

Partnerships

KeeperDAO and Rook collaborated with a range of DeFi protocols, infrastructure providers, and professional trading firms to source orderflow and deploy the protocol’s MEV-coordination mechanisms. On the DeFi side, integrations and cooperative programs were announced with protocols such as Bancor, B.Protocol, Gamma Strategies, GMX, mStable, and Catalog, often focused on routing liquidations or swaps through Rook’s keeper network and settlement infrastructure so that MEV could be captured and partially rebated to users. In the wallet and front-end category, Rook worked with projects including Tally Ho! and other Ethereum wallets to embed MEV-protected limit orders and gasless or rebated trades directly into user interfaces.

Institutional market makers and algorithmic trading firms such as Amber Group and Bastion participated in the keeper and searcher ecosystem around KeeperDAO and later Rook, providing liquidity and strategy execution capacity. The protocol also coordinated with independent MEV searchers and builder-relay infrastructure to construct transaction bundles that complied with Rook’s cooperative rules while maximizing aggregate value for users, protocols, and the DAO treasury.

Separately, Rook developed a partnership with the WOO Network that combined Rook’s on-chain MEV-prevention and coordination expertise with WOO’s trading platforms and liquidity. This collaboration began with a listing of ROOK on the WOO X exchange and explored how WOO Network could participate in Rook’s decentralized products, including the Coordination Game and Hiding Game, to pair on-chain MEV-aware execution with institutional-grade liquidity and market-making.^[5]

Wind-down

In 2023, disagreements over strategy and control of Rook DAO’s on-chain treasury escalated into a governance conflict, with some ROOK holders proposing a “rage quit” that would liquidate the treasury and return assets to token holders.^[8] KIP-44 was voted through to address this dispute by creating Incubator DAO as a distinct entity, tasked with receiving most of the treasury and administering a redemption process for ROOK holders.^[8][9] Under this arrangement, Rook’s active protocol development was deprioritized in favor of resolving the treasury standoff through a structured wind-down.

Following the establishment of Incubator DAO, subsequent governance decisions instructed it to dissolve and distribute its assets directly to ROOK token holders, rather than continue supporting protocol growth.^[9] The wind-down framework gave holders a three-month window in which they could claim a pro rata share of the Incubator DAO treasury by redeeming their ROOK, after which remaining assets were reserved for follow-on distribution steps defined by governance.^[9] This process effectively transformed the ROOK token from an instrument of long-term protocol governance into a claim on treasury assets over the duration of the redemption period.

As the redemption window progressed and a substantial portion of the treasury was returned to participants, major centralized exchanges suspended or delisted ROOK trading in response to the wind-down and shrinking token float.^[9] By the time the claim period and related distributions concluded, Rook’s on-chain products were largely inactive and DAO decision-making had mostly ceased, leaving ROOK thinly traded on a limited set of venues and the protocol infrastructure effectively dormant.^[8][9]