🏦 The CRV Wars Pt 2: The OTC OGs

🗞 Market commentary.

GM CURVE-aceous market remainders,

Over 59+ million CRV tokens have been sold OTC to OG’s and anons to help Curve Finance Founder Michael (Mich) Egrovo pay off his loans and stop the whole of DeFi from imploding on itself.

You could even begin to class this as Curve’s latest seed round investment led by an anonymous wallet holding 17.5m CRV tokens. If you know who this is please comment below.

Binance “COULD” be charged with fraud despite prosecutors being “WORRIED” about another FTX-style bank run with the keywords being COULD and WORRIED which make for a fantastic fear-mongering headline that didn’t even make the markets flinch.

Are we really now that numb to Binance FUD?

Or is the Binance FUD here to mask the SECs (potentially) new take on Ethereum futures ETFs which are starting to get more traction after Roundhill, Dixeon and Bitwise began submitting applications back in May.

🤓 In today’s email.

• Degen corner. Curve Wars Part 2: The OTC OGs

• DeFi insights. 12 unmissable updates

• ICYMI. Swell Network podcast plus research on Swell Network: A bull case & Will Trading Bots Kill Perps Dexes?

• Top Tweets. This is the most ALIVE bear market we’ve ever had - Ansem

• And finally. Playing GOD mode doesn’t work

🔥 Degen corner.

The CRV Wars Part 2: The OTC OGs

It’s just another day in DeFi

And another day that could potentially see the collapse of the entire DeFi system because 1 man went balls deep in a position.

But that's okay, if you’re trading sh*tcoins you can ignore this part and skip down to the “DeFi insights” section for the latest updates that might (or might not) pump your bags.

Curve Wars Part 2 features some of the OGs in the space such as Justin Sun, DCFGod, DWF Labs, Cream Finance, MachiBigBrother.eth and a whole host of anon wallets who are likely to profit handsomely from Mich being Mich and going balls deep in loans across multiple protocols.

How did we get here?

We’re basically in the mess because earlier in the year Mich took out a $100m loan on AAVE using $280m of CRV as collateral to buy 2 luxury mansions down under in Australia worth $40m+.

Then a hacker stole 7m CRV which the market could absorb but knowing that Mich is in trouble has caused a cascade of events forcing his hand to repay the loans to not get liquidated.

We’ll TLDR this next bit as Mich sold CRV tokens OTC for $0.4 to whales on a gentlemans handshake and to be locked away in good spirits (I would have loved to have seen the telegram group of Mich selling tokens OTC). 

To market dump 59+ million tokens would probably see the downfall of this generation of DeFi, or at least spur on a new wave of innovation.

Squeeze it 

That sands of time have been reset on Mich’s position but it is still a ticking time bomb as the squeeze continues as protocols put forward proposals to force payment deal with and mitigate the risk of implosion.

In an ideal world, DeFi would work together to keep rates low to increase the time Mich has to repay the loans and bad debt (should probably sell his Aussie mansions).

But this is Crypto and this is PvP where the lending protocol that doesn’t take rapid action now, increase borrowing rates and force Mich to pay off the loan will likely get rekt.

Abracadabra Alakazam

MIMs recent proposal looks at changing the terms of the loan to force Mich’s hand to repay the outstanding principal of $18M in order to save the protocol from MID, Magical Internet Disappearance.

However, MIMs proposal hasn’t come without some controversy. Some see it as a rug whereas others see means to end under exceptional circumstances. Interestingly, @0xSouvlaki points out in this MIM thread that the current proposal might be more in favour of saving the MIMs failing stablecoin which is still trading below its $1 peg. 

And anyway, this is all just magical internet money anyway right?!

This is a game of chess my friends, where when your King faces checkmate you must do what you must to save the game. 

In next week’s editions of Curve Wars… the after-effects of OTC deals.

UPDATE

Whilst we were sleeping last night it looks like Mich has OTC’d close to another $10m CRV with the current top OTC transfer being 17.5m CRV tokens to an anon wallet… and so the storyline continues

👀 DeFi insights.

The important bits.

• Degen Bets - Launching soon on WINR - read

• Fuji Finance - V2 update including Ethereum support, borrowing & lending vaults and UI redesigns - read

• Gamma Swap - Tokenomics (almost) revealed - read

• GMX - GMX V2 likely to happen this week - read

• HashFlow - Daily active users increase by 60% and feature in a full-length Messari Report - read

• Mori Finance - Partner with Holborn after passing PackShield audit - read

• Pendle Finance - Pendle Campaign Mode Season 1 begins - read

• Pepper Dex - Latest medium article including revenue share and oPEP distribution - read

• Popsicile Finance - WAGMI tokenomics may be revealed this week - read

• Trader Joe - Release on-chain order limits - read

• Wen Llamas - Currently holding a Baby Llama art content - read

• Y2K - Community discord vote to add a bridge and or protocol hack risk markets - read

📰 DeFi news.

Even more important bits.

• Binance faces charges of fraud however prosecutors are worried about another FTX-style bank run - read

• Curve Finance & JPEG’d exploiter suspect possibly linked to Michael Razum accordingly to on-chain sleuth Zachxbt - read

• ETH future ETF frenzy begins as Direxion submit the “Bitcoin Ether Strategy ETF” giving exposure to both BTC and ETH futures - read

• "FTX 2.0 would be worse than starting from scratch” according to Kraken Co-Founder Jesse Powell - read

• Litecoin LTC coin dumps despite halving event keeping in line with past historical halvings - read

• Wintermute withdraw 8M ARKM tokens in a potential OTC deal to facilitate additional market-making - read

🫠 ICYMI.

Life gets busy so here’s what you’ve missed.

blocmates podcast: An interview with Swell Network

Listen & Watch.

Jedi sits down with Swell Founder, Daniel to delve into the Swell Network, a protocol focused on LSD’s, prioritizing safety and security, with plans to release a token and new economic designs soon while aiming to make liquid staking accessible to as many people as possible and incentivise community involvement through a gamified journey.

Tune in on Spotify | YouTube →

Swell Network: A Bull Case

Research.

But in essence, Swell’s plan of attack to chip away at Lido’s market share is simple. Focus on the two things people care about the most, simplicity & profitability. 

A sleek UI is nothing new, but by offering direct fiat on-ramping as well as in-house vaults (coming soon), Swell takes simplicity to a whole other level. 

Read more →

Will Trading Bots Kill Perp Dexes?

Thought Provoker.

But does the future of trading lie in the hands of automated trading bots? Or is it just another passing crypto narrative, of which many have come and gone in the recent bear market madness?

Read more →

🐥 Top tweets.

To save you doom scrolling.

Cryptovestor77, the CRV & FRAX games continue.

CryptoxHunter, they’ve kinda got a point… a frog coin called PEPE hit $1bn after all.

0xSisyphus, on chain is crypto and crypto is onchain.

🦍 And finally…

If there’s one thing we keep re-learning it’s that no one can play god mode in this industry and this situation is likely to put us back, again, as mainstream media picks up on yet another negative crypto headline.

But in other news, the microcap space has been booming as we all continue to gamble our way to the promised land (or at least that’s how the story is supposed to go).

🤝 A final word.

A quick word from our super awesome sponsors who help us make this all possible...

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