Founder Misconduct, Volatility, And Reflexivity —DeFi Chronicles

Over the past 48 hours, DeFi and Crypto Twitter have been on a wild ride. The rollercoaster initiated when CoinDesk reported that one of the co-founders of popular Avalanche-based automated money market (AMM) Wonderland, pseudonymous “Sifu” was revealed to be Michael Patryn.

Furthermore, popular co-founder, Daniele Sestagalli, knew who “Sifu” truly was and chose to give him a “second” chance, despite Patryn’s checkered past.

However, members of the Wonderland community on Twitter did not share the same sentiment as Sestagalli.

Since the revelation, affiliated project Abracadabra (SPELL) has experienced harsh losses. Abracadabra’s stable coin, MIM, has experienced significant selling pressure, leading to its peg breaking.

Per Coingecko, MIM supply has dropped by 17% over the past 7 days.

Several theories have emerged as to why MIM is dumping, including large institutions like Alameda Research liquidating MIM. But, what appears to be driving the situation is the interconnectedness of Abracadabra’s DegenBox and Anchor Protocol. The President of Jump Crypto, Kanav Kariya, posted his thoughts on Twitter regarding the situation.

Both stable coins, MIM and UST, have stabilized back near their pegs, which lends some credence to Kanav’s argument. Furthermore, the stable coin market cap is still $177 billion according to Coingecko; only slightly slower compared to the previous 7-day period.

DeFi has shown numerous times, reflexive feedback loops powered by hype inevitably reverse. But, the genuine demand that remains, e.g. strong market cap for stable coins, typically makes the system more robust in the longer term.

In particular, DeFi’s free market mechanics and self-policing nature by the community, allow for the continued removal of bad actors and increased anti-fragility of the ecosystem.

In DeFi, Schumpeter’s creative destruction applies to both innovation and lessons learned. I fore-one am excited to see these lessons put into action to forge a better DeFi.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherbrookins/2022/01/29/founder-misconduct-volatility-and-reflexivity–defi-chronicles/