CRV falls below $0.40 as tokens bought from founder sent temporarily to Binance
Quick Take
- The price of CRV fell below $0.40 after Curve DAO tokens bought over the counter from the project’s founder, Michael Egorov, were transferred to Binance — with other OTC buyers briefly underwater.
- The tokens were bought in August in a move aimed at reducing Egorov’s DeFi debt liquidation risks and were supposed to be locked for six months.
- While the motivation remains uncertain, the tokens were sent back from Binance a few hours later.
The price of Curve DAO 
CRV
+3.81%
tokens fell below $0.40 after CRV bought over-the-counter from the DeFi project’s founder, Michael Egorov, were transferred earlier today.
Blockchain security firm Peckshield noted that one of Egorov’s counterparties, “0xb0b8”, who received 2.5 million CRV for one million USDT in early August, transferred 609,000 CRV tokens to Binance. “Investors who bought CRV from Michael Egorov at $0.40 are currently at a loss,” web3 data analytics platform Lookonchain added.
The motivation for the transfer remains uncertain. However, the OTC counterparty sent back the 609,000 CRV a few hours later, according to on-chain data, as the token price recovered slightly.
CRV is currently trading at exactly $0.40, according to CoinGecko — down 3% over the last 24 hours.
Egorov's OTC deals
Egorov sold 106 million of CRV for $46 million in early August in deals aimed at reducing potential liquidation risks associated with his outstanding debt across various DeFi platforms. Egorov has been working to repay some of this debt to mitigate liquidation risks by selling the CRV tokens for stablecoins.
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The token sales included transactions with entities including crypto trading firm Wintermute, Tron founder Justin Sun — who purchased 5 million CRV — and NFT investor Jeffrey Huang (Machi Big Brother). An anonymous entity secured the largest OTC deal with Egorov, purchasing 17.5 million CRV tokens.
The sales followed a 30% decline in the price of CRV to $0.50 after a security exploit affected multiple Curve Finance liquidity pools on July 30.
CRV/USD price chart. Image CoinGecko.
Disclosure: Wintermute co-founder Evgeny Gaevoy sits on The Block’s board.
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