Curve Founder Sells 106 Million CRV OTC, Raises $42.4 Million in Stablecoins

Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov has sold a large amount of CRV to raise funds to maintain his borrowing positions across multiple DeFi protocols.

Overview of the OTC Sale

According to on-chain data trackers, as of the morning of August 04 (Vietnam time), Michael Egorov has sold a total of 106 million CRV to various investors via OTC (Over-The-Counter) transactions.

Assuming the rumored OTC sale price of $0.40 per CRV, this sale has netted Egorov approximately $42.4 million in stablecoins, primarily USDT.

List of Investors

The list of investors participating in the "CRV rescue" includes funds like Wintermute and DWF Labs, DeFi projects such as Gnosis, Yearn Finance, Cream Finance, Reserve Protocol, Stake DAO, and individual investors like Justin Sun, Huobi founder Du Jun, and DCF GOD.

Reason for the Sale

As reported by Coin68, the primary reason behind Egorov's massive sale of CRV stems from the July 31 attack on Curve Finance, exploiting a vulnerability in pools using the Vyper programming language. The hack resulted in a loss of around $52 million.

Following the attack, Curve's TVL (Total Value Locked) plummeted by more than 50% within 24 hours as users and projects rushed to withdraw funds to mitigate risk, causing the CRV price to drop by nearly 20%. This price drop jeopardized the collateral value of Egorov's loans on DeFi platforms such as Aave, Abracadabra, and Fraxlend, risking a liquidation cascade that could have further destabilized the DeFi sector.

To prevent this, Egorov resorted to selling CRV through OTC deals to raise funds to pay off debts and avoid liquidations without flooding the market and exacerbating the crisis.

Current Debt Positions

As of the time of writing, Egorov still has the following outstanding loans, according to DeBank:

• Aave: Borrowed 43.1 million USDT, collateralized by 251.1 million CRV (worth $145 million).
• Abracadabra: Borrowed 4.5 million MIM, collateralized by 25.6 million CRV (worth $14.8 million).
• Fraxlend: Borrowed 9.2 million FRAX, collateralized by 38.6 million CRV (worth $22.3 million).
• Silo: Borrowed 733,000 XAI, collateralized by 2.35 million CRV (worth $1.3 million).
• Inverse: Borrowed 7.6 million DOLA, collateralized by 29.1 million CRV (worth $16.8 million).

Egorov currently holds 374 million CRV, accounting for 42.4% of CRV's circulating supply.