11th June 2023 > > Ooki DAO.

tl;dr

It looks like game over for Ooki DAO.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

Altcoins generally took a beating yesterday, especially those named in the lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance. A 20% loss on the day was the fate for many of these alts as Robinhood – a trading app aimed at a generation of users somewhat younger than me – has announced it will end support for ADA (Cardano), MATIC (Polygon), and SOL (Solana).

The CCC treasury is increasing its allocation to these coins in response to this news.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Ooki DAO

The CCC has delved into this topic twice before now. You may wish to refresh your memory:

https://www.curiouscryptos.com/post/28th-september-2022-more-regulation

https://www.curiouscryptos.com/post/12th-january-2023-ooki-dao

But if you can’t be bothered, the top line is that Ooki DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation) was set up as an illegal margin-traded derivatives platform specifically to avoid securities regulations in the US. The defence was that as a decentralised product, no individual could be brought to book for its activities.

The authorities took one look at that defence and went “pah”.

A lawsuit against both the founders of Ooki DAO and all members of Ooki DAO was initiated.

The CFTC (Commodities and Futures Trading Commission) has won a default judgement after no challenge to the lawsuit was submitted to the judge in person. Presumably because being on US soil and defending the case carried the risk of not being able to leave a high-security prison for some time.

CFTC Division of Enforcement Director Ian McGinley said:

“The founders created the Ooki DAO with an evasive purpose, and with the explicit goal of operating an illegal trading platform without legal accountability. This decision should serve as a wake-up call to anyone who believes they can circumvent the law by adopting a DAO structure, intending to insulate themselves from law enforcement and ultimately putting the public at risk.”

The point of this story is that centralised regulation is the only route to the mass adoption of cryptos. Those crypto maximalists who think they can circumvent the rules will learn a painful lesson whilst also damaging the entire crypto industry.

…

On the 12th of January 2023 the CCC warned that it was “Crunch time for Ooki DAO and I think it looks bleak”. The CCC also commented that holders of OOKI, the native coin, should be worried. Since that date, BTC has rallied 40% and OOKI has lost over 50% of its value. Holders of OOKI hoping for better days are most likely to end up being very disappointed.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – The Hinman documents

With just 2 days to go until the world sees the unredacted Hinman documents it has been brought to my attention that the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) has quietly removed Bill Hinman’s biography from its website. Which is a bit weird.