[SCP 196] Proposal: New Website Additional Funding

1. Introduction

ShapeShift's design has been defining DeFi generations since 2014. Over the years, our interface has evolved—from the classic swap experience to a more comprehensive portfolio manager… back to a classic swap experience. As ShapeShift matures, so does its brand identity. In the last quarter, the marketing workstream has owned the overhaul and proliferation of the ShapeShift brand; view the new brand-guide here. As we continue to see this shift (no pun intended) happening across other competitors and industries, ShapeShift’s evolution ensures we stay visually relevant, user-friendly, and optimized for conversion.

This proposal seeks $20,000 of FOX and 50,000 USDC in funding for the development and overhaul of ShapeShift.com in partnership with the dev team Mom. The ShapeShift marketing team independently secured $30,000 USDC from the sale of a portion of its VVV airdrop. This request of $70,000 is for the remaining costs of development.

2. Motivation

ShapeShift.com is our most critical first-touchpoint. Yet it hasn’t had a full overhaul since DAO genesis in 2021—resulting in a fragmented experience, outdated infrastructure, and marketing bottlenecks. As ShapeShift’s brand evolves, so must our digital presence. This rebuild unlocks:

• A modern, bold, UX-forward site

• CMS migration to Strapi (faster updates, improved SEO, better tracking)

• Self-hosting (cost-efficient, scalable, marketing-owned)

• Open-source code (DAO-aligned and future-friendly)

After considering four quotes from different providers, the marketing workstream opted to work with the MOM team.

Who is Mom? The UI and marketing team behind popular brands such as Yearn, Ajna, and more. View their twitter here: https://x.com/built_by_mom

Mom’s design of the new ShapeShift website directly aligns and supports our brand’s evolution and movement toward data-driven marketing by offering:

• A modern, curved, and bolder visual identity that matches our refreshed branding and upgraded app experience.

• A more dynamic reading experience with optimized formatting. Example:

  Before: https://shapeshift.com/library After: https://shapeshift.builtby.dad/blog

• More fluid, customizable, and accessible infrastructure, enabling all DAO workstreams to manage and update content independently. Additional functionality for banners, callouts, and funnels, empowering the marketing team to do more with pixels, UTM tracking, and customer acquisition and journey attribution.

• Long-term cost savings by abstracting infrastructure costs—initially self-hosted on Vercel's Pro Plan via the Marketing Workstream or better option (Digital Ocean, Linode and similars, with progressive scaling) See below.

In November of 2024, we were paying a part-time workstream contributor to maintain the .com. We spent $30,000 that year on that contributor who effectively had their hands tied with partial access to the platform as well as a non-fully customizable experience that took weeks to push changes to.

The previous .com experience lasted approximately four years since it was overhauled. This provides a reasonable benchmark for the longevity of this new website in a self-managed environment before requiring a major reassessment (obo 4 years before we might need to revisit it). The marketing workstream will be able to work faster and ship more by unblocking this website relic. Additionally, we will be able to understand more information on users, actions, and interests and use that to better convert people from the .com.

3. Specification

Last year, the ShapeShift marketing team let go of its web developer and halted updates on the old shapeshift.com in preparation for this migration. Over the following months, the team sourced quotes from 4 different external teams from both traditional web2 and web3 development companies and decided on the best one based on cost, perception of ability to create a hybrid web2/web3 environment, and ability to work with a DAO. View the initial proposal from the mom team. View the current demo of the new site here: https://shapeshift.builtby.dad The current website demo performs better, even in its mockup stage. Highlighting a 100 score in SEO, the new website should have its discoverability amplified.

Old ShapeShift.com performance by PageSpeed:

Mockup's performance by PageSpeed:

The picture below shows the past 6 months of ShapeShift.com traffic (Average 30k visitors monthly). The new website goal is to increase the number of inbound traffic in conjunction with increasing conversions to the app, however, we don't have control on SERPs deliverables nor market conditions which objectively impacts organic traffic. From this new website we would like to see:

• A consistent 10% growth in conversions from home page to the dApp per year. A 10% growth year-over-year of inbound traffic.
• The ability to pixel and track users on the .com => reinform outbound marketing efforts on Socials. (We recently acquired licenses to run crypto ads).
• Aggressively continuing our landing page + SEO discovery work. This new website structure will empower us to spin up pages in seconds vs. weeks with appropriate tracking, links, and analytics.

ShapeShift.com avg. organic traffic - Source: ahrefs

The total cost for the full implementation of the new .com is $100K. To complete the project, Marketing Workstream requires an additional $70,000 in funding:

| Requested Amount | Allocation | | -------- | -------- | | $20K in FOX | Immediate dev work (Marketing is behind on this due to FOX price dip) | Text | | $50K in USDC| Final payment upon delivery and key handoff |

Key Deliverables

• Open-source framework for ShapeShift.com (homepage, blog, tracking, landing pages, etc).
• Rebranded UI/UX aligned with ShapeShift’s evolved identity. CMS transition to Strapi for improved content management and SEO optimization.
• Self-hosting: abstracting infrastructure costs and access from the foundation and putting the .com firmly inside of the marketing workstreams control.

• Enhanced analytics & tracking integration for marketing SEO and funnel optimization. Currently the limitations inside of webflow make user journeys, edits, and analytics borderline unmanageable and not useful. This new system will allow for custom user journeys, advanced tracking features, and for a better content management system.

4. Benefits

• Improved UX/UI: More engaging, modern, and in sync with ShapeShift’s branding.
• Increased content agility: Open-source CMS enables workstream contributors to make updates independently.
• Scalability: The new structure supports future integrations and improvements. Decreasing clicks to conversion and embedding product elements in landing pages.
• Open-source: More aligned with DAO ethos. Reducing liability on the Foundation.
• Cost Efficiency: Long-term infrastructure savings and marketing-driven performance optimizations.
  • Better tracking
  • Removal of a need for a dedicated webmaster (see chart above for total savings)

5. Drawbacks

• Upfront cost: this is paying for code development, proper documentation and deployment support.
• Rely on self-hosting SLA
• It's a dev-friendly website that could be difficult for future contributors to understand (despite documentation)

6. Conclusion

This proposal enables the marketing team to finally unblock shapeshift.com, supercharge our growth funnel, and take full ownership of the digital brand experience. With the unlock of these funds, we can ship a site that serves the DAO for the next 3–4 years—built to scale, convert, and reflect who we are today.