Governance as market surface
When governance power is liquid, governance becomes a market surface. Voting rights can be accumulated, borrowed, delegated, incentivized, or routed through coalitions that respond to financial payoffs rather than protocol durability.
This does not make token governance unusable. It means governance has to be designed as an economic system with attack costs, time delays, legitimacy constraints, and clear boundaries around what should not require routine voting.
Failure pattern
Financialized governance fails when the protocol assumes that token-weighted choice is the same as long-term stewardship. The actors with the greatest influence may not be the actors with the greatest exposure to future consequences.
Design implication
Governance should be minimized where possible and made explicit where necessary. The goal is not maximal participation. The goal is legitimate, informed, and resilient coordination under real economic pressure.