Melbourne crypto compound owner shrugs off $140 million in losses

A crypto entrepreneur who paid $59 million for adjoining Melbourne mansions has shrugged off the hack of a liquidity provider to his decentralised finance platform

A Melbourne crypto entrepreneur has shrugged off the hack of a liquidity provider to his decentralised finance platform, which caused the value of his crypto holdings to collapse by $140 million in days.

Michael Egorov, 38, a Russian-born pioneer in the decentralised finance (DeFi) space, which removes banks and other third parties from financial transactions, created the Curve token in 2020 as the founder of Curve Finance.

The DeFi protocol, which allows users to swap stablecoins and cryptocurrencies with low fees and slippage, quickly became one of the largest DeFi protocols by total value locked.

Egorov, who is now a naturalised Australian citizen, used the proceeds from the sale of his Curve tokens to buy two adjoining mansions in Melbourne’s Stonnington for a combined $59 million in 2022.

However, the crypto entrepreneur, who is also a keen surfer, told The Australian Financial Review that the recent hack of DeFi liquidity provider Wintermute had caused the value of his crypto holdings to collapse by $140 million in days.

“It’s not great. I guess I’m still up overall, but it’s definitely not what it used to be,” Egorov said.

“I guess I’m still fortunate to have a Stonnington mansion, but I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to keep it. I guess we’ll see.”

Egorov said he was not directly affected by the Wintermute hack, but the knock-on effects had caused a sharp decline in the price of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether.

“I’m still waiting for the dust to settle, but it’s definitely not looking good,” he said.

“I guess I’m just hoping for the best at this point.”

The Wintermute hack, which occurred on September 20, saw the attacker exploit a vulnerability in the liquidity provider’s code to steal $204 million worth of cryptocurrencies from Wintermute’s DeFi counterparties.

In response to the hack, Wintermute announced that it would be pausing operations on several DeFi protocols, including Curve Finance, to prevent further losses.

The DeFi protocol, which had been experiencing record-breaking volumes in the lead-up to the hack, quickly resumed operations after Wintermute announced that it had recovered the majority of the stolen cryptocurrencies.

However, the hack and its aftermath had a significant impact on the price of cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin and ether both experiencing sharp declines in the days following the event.

Egorov, who is known for his outspoken views on the crypto industry, has previously expressed concerns about the lack of regulation in the DeFi space.

In an interview with the AFR earlier this year, Egorov said that DeFi was “a ticking time bomb” and that regulators needed to step in to prevent a catastrophic event.

“I think regulators need to come in and do something, because if they don’t, it’s going to blow up in their faces,” he said.

“I’m not saying that DeFi is bad, but it needs to be regulated properly. Otherwise, we’re going to have another FTX, and no one wants that.”

News source：https://www.kdj.com/cryptocurrencies-news/articles/melbourne-crypto-compound-owner-shrugs-losses.html

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