What is Core DAO?
Core is a Layer 1 blockchain that runs Ethereum-compatible smart contracts and ties its security to Bitcoin. CORE is its native token, used for staking and gas fees.
Its consensus model, called Satoshi Plus, combines three inputs:
- Bitcoin miners can delegate their hash power to Core validators and earn extra rewards.
- CORE holders can stake tokens with validators, as in Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS).
- Bitcoin holders can stake $BTC without giving up custody, a feature added in April 2024.
Who Are Core’s Known Contributors?
Core’s website names a small group of people. None is described as a founder.
Rich Rines
Rines is the most public face of Core. He spent about three and a half years at Coinbase, where he led an engineering group focused on money movement. He has contributed to Core since 2022 and helped launch its mainnet, he told BlockBeats.
Core Ventures lists him as an “Initial Contributor.” He is also CEO of Element Wallet, a consumer app for stablecoins and encrypted messaging, and holds a degree from Boston College.
Brendon Sedo
Sedo is the second named “Initial Contributor.” He co-founded Joist, a business software company later acquired by EverCommerce. His fintech products reached more than 1 million small businesses, processing about $2 billion a year. At Core, he works on Core Ventures and on institutional adoption.
Ryan Hong
Hong is listed as a venture contributor at Core Ventures. He previously worked on investment and research teams at crypto-focused firms.
Why Is So Much Of The Team Unknown?
Core has never published a full list of its developers. A CoinMarketCap Academy profile says the core team “remains anonymous.” It also says the project began with a debate between two friends, a claim the author could not verify.
Governance follows the same pattern. Under the project’s own plan, the core team runs decisions for now. Core intends to move through three stages: off-chain majority voting, limited on-chain voting on set parameters, and full on-chain governance. It has published no timeline.
What Does The Core Foundation Do?
The Core Foundation is the organization behind several of Core’s products. It created lstBTC, a token that lets holders earn yield on Bitcoin held by custodians BitGo, Copper, and Hex Trust. It also announced dual staking, which pays higher rewards to users who stake both $BTC and CORE.
The Foundation has also defended its products in court. In 2025, it accused former lstBTC partner Maple Finance of breaking an exclusivity deal and misusing confidential information. A Cayman Islands court barred Maple from launching its rival token, syrupBTC, in late 2025. On May 22, 2026, the two sides reached a full and final settlement, ending the case. The terms are confidential, and neither side admitted liability.
How Much CORE Do Contributors Hold?
CORE has a fixed supply of 2.1 billion tokens. According to CoinMarketCap Academy, the planned allocation is:
- Node mining: 839.9 million, paid out over 81 years
- Users: 525.6 million
- Contributors, current and future: 315 million, or 15%
- Reserves: 210 million
- Treasury: 199.5 million
About 1.48 billion CORE is now in circulation, per CoinGecko.
What Happened To Core In 2026?
Core faced its biggest test this year, and the response came from the project’s accounts, not named people.
The Validator Reward Incident
On August 31, 2026, Core said a small group of validators had received more CORE than the protocol allowed. It said user assets were safe and the problem was limited to reward issuance. Exchanges reacted quickly:
- Coinbase paused CORE sends and receives.
- Bithumb and Coinone suspended deposits and withdrawals.
- Bitget and LBank also paused some transfers.
On September 3, Core activated an emergency hard fork, version 1.0.26, that blocked the excess rewards without rolling back transactions. Core said more than 150 million CORE were removed from supply, but it has not published a transaction record that would let others verify the figure. No individual contributor was quoted in coverage of the incident.
Handing Over Block Production
On October 1, Core said it would hand the remaining block production roles held by its official node to independent validators over the coming months. It described the step as part of its plan to decentralize.
Conclusion
Core DAO runs a Bitcoin-linked, EVM-compatible blockchain secured by Satoshi Plus consensus. Its public contributors include Rich Rines and Brendon Sedo, alongside the Core Foundation and Core Ventures, while most of its builders stay anonymous. In 2026 it settled its dispute with Maple, handled a validator reward exploit with an emergency hard fork, and began moving block production to independent validators.
