CRV, Curve's governance token, has made a notable comeback, surging by 22% after hitting its lowest point in August 2023. As of August 3, CRV is valued at $0.59, a significant increase from its $0.48 value on August 1, which was a result of a detrimental hack that led to several liquidity providers losing funds.
This resurgence is mainly due to the strategic moves of influential crypto whales who have intervened to alleviate potential risks on DeFi if CRV prices were to continue falling. Concurrently, Michael Egorov, Curve's founder and one of the largest CRV holders, has been actively selling tokens on the secondary market.
Egorov has been offloading his tokens to whales like Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, and other venture capitals and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). He held approximately 292 million CRV and used a significant portion to secure his loans.
On August 2, Egorov sold 3.75 million CRV tokens to Yearn Treasury and another 1.25 million CRV tokens to Stake DAO Governance via the over-the-counter (OTC) market. In total, Egorov has sold 59.5 million CRV to various institutions and investors, generating around $23.8 million. These OTC sales, done at considerable discounts, reflect Egorov's efforts to stabilize CRV prices and prevent further fallout.
The hack on July 30 resulted in attackers exploiting a re-entrancy flaw and stealing funds from several liquidity pools. Initial losses were estimated at around $70 million, but intervention by white hat hackers reduced the total impact to approximately $50 million.
Following this incident, CRV prices fell by over 12%. Given Curve's significance in DeFi, the hack and subsequent price drop had a ripple effect throughout Curve and DeFi, particularly in decentralized money markets.
Curve, managing over $2 billion as total value locked (TVL) according to DeFiLlama, has drawn attention to Egorov's $60 million Aave v2 loan, primarily backed by CRV. If this loan were to be liquidated, it would likely result in more selling pressure on CRV, leading to another possible fallout, especially for other CRV holders with loans across different protocols.
Egorov is actively working to mitigate the risks associated with his large Aave loan, which is heavily collateralized by CRV. He aims to minimize the potential effects of forced liquidation through off-market transactions, where he is selling his CRV at a discount and simultaneously repaying his loan. This strategy appears to be supporting prices.
