Summary
Douro Labs proposes expanding the Pyth offering into the institutional market through a paid subscription product. Institutions spend ~$50B annually on market data, growing 10% per annum. By leveraging Pyth’s unique value position—proprietary market data, broad cross-asset coverage, and proven DeFi adoption—the Pyth DAO can capture part of this market.
This expansion represents a new, high-margin revenue source for the DAO, while everything onchain for existing DeFi users continues as before.
Background
Institutional market data: Banks, asset managers, and trading firms rely on data for risk models, settlement, compliance, displays, and analytics. Today they pay billions to legacy providers like Bloomberg and Refinitiv, who bundle fragmented feeds and capture all downstream revenue.
Why Pyth is positioned to enter:
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Already integrated with 600+ protocols across 100+ blockchains (onchain + offchain).
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Delivers 1,800+ price feeds, including 900+ real-world assets.
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Handles ~$1.6T in trading volume through applications using Pyth feeds.
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Processes ~75–100M price updates onchain each month.
Pyth is already the trusted source of high-quality data in crypto; the next step is offering that same standard to institutions.
Proposal
Institutional Subscriptions: Launch a paid subscription service that delivers low-latency, high-frequency data to professional clients. Onchain protocols can also subscribe if they need this tier.
Access to Subscriptions: Supported in USD (credit card/wire), stablecoins, or PYTH tokens.
Distribution Network: Since it would be operationally inefficient for the DAO to run billing or infrastructure directly, it should build a network of distributors (e.g. Douro Labs). This company would:
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Operate a subscription API infrastructure
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Manage contracts with clients directly
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Report revenue and performance to the DAO
Revenues: 60% of subscription revenues to flow to the DAO. The remaining 40% is expected to be split across the data distributor network and administrative fees.
Onchain users of Core (the validation service) will continue as before. Fees for Core usage are already being rolled out per prior DAO discussions, and this proposal does not change that trajectory. Onchain protocols, will of course, have the ability to subscribe to the paid service (Lazer) if they need this tier.
Implementation
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DAO authorizes a distributor to administer and oversee the institutional subscription platform.
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DAO approves terms with distributors.
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DAO monitors all monetary transactions. Net proceeds accrue to the DAO treasury, after covering service costs.
Next Steps
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Community discussion on expanding into the institutional market and the role of service providers.
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Agree fee structure, service agreement terms, and approval process.
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Define how DAO proceeds will be allocated (publisher rewards, oracle integrity staking rewards, buy-backs, etc…)
4. Prepare a detailed follow-up proposal for DAO vote.