Alabama is now the second U.S. state to formally recognize DAOs under law, after Governor Kay Ivey signed Senate Bill 277 on April 1, 2026.
Key Takeaways
Alabama signed Senate Bill 277 on April 1, 2026, making it the second U.S. state after Wyoming to give DAOs a defined legal standing.
The law shields individual DAO members from personal liability but prohibits profit distribution to members.
West Virginia is close behind, with a similar bill awaiting the governor’s signature.
Federal legislation is also moving – the GENIUS Act already passed, and the CLARITY Act is working through the Senate.
Alabama’s DUNA Act gives DAOs their first real legal identity in the state – meaning an organization can own property, sign contracts, and take on liability without exposing individual token holders. It takes effect October 1.
The Liability Problem DAOs Have Had
A Decentralized Autonomous Organization is a group of people coordinating through code rather than corporate hierarchy. Rules are encoded in smart contracts – self-executing programs on a blockchain – and governance decisions run through token-based voting with no CEO, no board, no traditional structure. Because DAOs don’t fit any existing corporate category, courts have historically treated them as general partnerships, which means every token holder can theoretically be held jointly and severally liable for the organization’s actions.
That is not a theoretical risk; it has already played out in U.S. litigation, and it has pushed most serious legal counsel to recommend some kind of protective corporate wrapper before participating in DAO governance.
What the Law Does – and Doesn’t Do
The DUNA Act grants DAOs full legal personhood within Alabama: a qualifying organization can own property, enter contracts, and appear in litigation under its own name. The limited liability provision is the centerpiece – members and administrators are explicitly shielded from personal liability for the association’s debts and actions. To qualify, an organization needs at least 100 members united around a common nonprofit purpose, with governing a blockchain protocol as the clearest example. The law also formally recognizes on-chain governance through smart contracts as legally valid.
The key restriction: a DUNA cannot distribute profits to its members. DAOs that exist primarily to generate returns for token holders will not find this structure useful and will still need traditional corporate wrappers or offshore arrangements.
How It Compares to Wyoming
Wyoming got there first – its DUNA Act passed in March 2024, and it goes further by also offering a DAO LLC structure – an algorithmically managed entity that accommodates commercial profit motives alongside the nonprofit recognition. Alabama’s framework is narrower, targeting protocol DAOs focused on governance and coordination rather than yield distribution. Both states are experimenting, but Wyoming’s toolkit covers more organizational use cases.
West Virginia has already introduced its own DUNA legislation and as of April 2026, the bill is awaiting Governor Patrick Morrisey’s signature. Vermont and Tennessee have taken a different route, creating pathways for DAOs to register as specialized LLCs. California recognizes unincorporated nonprofit associations that can provide limited liability without formal state registration – a lighter approach that points in a similar direction without the DUNA label. The result is a patchwork where a DAO’s legal standing can shift significantly depending on which state’s law applies to a given dispute.
The Bigger Federal Picture
Federal lawmakers have been active in parallel. The GENIUS Act, signed in July 2025, established the first major federal stablecoin regulation, requiring 1:1 asset backing and a licensing regime through the OCC. The CLARITY Act is currently under Senate review and would codify into law a jurisdictional boundary that agencies have so far only addressed through shifting enforcement postures and case-by-case rulings.
At the state level, Maine, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Florida passed 2026 laws targeting cryptocurrency ATM fraud, Indiana enacted legislation requiring state retirement plans to offer at least one crypto investment option, and the Mined in America Act was introduced in April 2026 to support domestic mining infrastructure.
State recognition does not resolve the federal picture. A DAO operating as a DUNA under Alabama law still faces SEC scrutiny if its tokens meet the Howey Test criteria for securities, and no amount of state incorporation changes that calculus. With over 13,000 DAOs operating globally across treasuries exceeding $24 billion, most of them spanning jurisdictions with no equivalent legal framework, Alabama’s law is a meaningful step – but a narrow one.
