Wintermute claims NEAR backed out of $11M stablecoin redemption deal

The NEAR Foundation and Aurora allegedly reneged on an offer to convert $11 million worth of USN (USN) stablecoins, Wintermute founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy has claimed.

In a Nov. 7 X (Twitter) post, Gaevoy claimed NEAR refused to honor a commitment to facilitate the sale of $11.2 million worth of the stablecoin USN for the FTX estate.

3. Summary

To reiterate, I see this situation very clearly as:

– NF committed to backstop USN and earmarked money for it- Aurora accepted the redemption in August (and only last week backtracked on it)- NF decided they have the power to keep the $11M to themselves instead of…

— wishful cynic (@EvgenyGaevoy) November 7, 2023

Gaevoy said Wintermute had been working with FTX to liquidate its assets for creditors which included the sale of $11.2 million worth of USN.

Gaevoy claimed Wintermute executed the transaction — which provided $11 million to FTX creditors — based on an alleged agreement with the NEAR Foundation that it would be able to redeem USN to Tether (USDT) on a one-to-one basis. 

When Wintermute submitted its redemption request, NEAR allegedly “refused to honor their commitments.” Gaevoy claimed after two and a half months, Wintermute still hadn’t received any USDT.

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Gaevoy claimed Wintermute received a final offer of 20% of the $11 million. Gaevoy said Wintermute would pursue “all legal avenues” against NEAR and Aurora — the organisation responsible for allowing the transfer of assets from the Ethereum network to the NEAR protocol. 

USN was first launched as an algorithmic stablecoin on April 25, 2022 by Decentral Bank, which called itself an independently operated community run project with no direct financial assistance from the NEAR Foundation.

However, last October the NEAR Foundation opened a $40 million fund to support USN to USDT conversions after USN became undercollateralized.

Gaevoy said the post was the “last and public attempt” in asking the NEAR Foundation to complete the redemption.

“However if [NEAR Foundation] continues to be unreasonable about this situation, we are fully committed to switching into a full-time adversarial mode.”

The NEAR Foundation and Aurora did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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