Anonymous developer releases Curve native tokens without the project team’s knowledge

The anonymous user @0xc4ad triggered an unplanned deployment of the contracts governing the DeFi protocol Curve and distributed its CRV tokens ahead of their official announcement. He used code published on GitHub, spending 19.9 ETH to deploy it on the Ethereum network.

2/ An anon user (https://t.co/igNKy0q5NG) used that code and deployed it and paid 19.9 ETH to do so. People started noticing the CRV token was deployed and started talking about it on Twitter.

— Steven (@Dogetoshi) August 14, 2020

The protocol team, in response to the ensuing furor, initially described the released tokens as a scam. A little later they conceded that the deployment parameters matched real ones.

Interesting. We are proceeding with caution here, so far looks like contracts are the correct ones, as well as the deployment parameters correspond to real ones (should verify though)

— Curve (@CurveFinance) August 13, 2020

Seven hours after the incident, Curve acknowledged that the CRV launch had taken place:

“The deployment was completed with the correct code, data and administrator keys. Since the token and the DAO began gaining traction, we had no choice but to accept it.”

So, Curve DAO and https://t.co/26L8Wt13oe token are launched by , we had no choice but to adopt it. The launch has happened https://t.co/5EQDwbknmP

— Curve (@CurveFinance) August 14, 2020

Almost immediately after this, announcements of CRV listings on major crypto exchanges followed. The first was Poloniex.

Well… that was unexpected 😅 New #DeFi Listing: @CurveFinance$CRV wallets are open now and you can begin depositing and posting limit orders for CRV/USDT

Deposit: https://t.co/6aJqw60Lbe
CRV/USDT: https://t.co/JenrMQOVOZhttps://t.co/RYXbv0DnKH pic.twitter.com/xBDNfqRw9q

— Poloniex Exchange (@Poloniex) August 14, 2020

Curve Finance $CRV gets listed on Binance, OKEx and Huobi on August 14. Also many other exchanges announced CRV listing simultaneously. It is the premiere listing day of one of the most anticipated #DeFi token. pic.twitter.com/aIMNjgmmEi

— ICO Analytics (@ICO_Analytics) August 14, 2020

Tokens began trading on decentralized exchanges as well. Some users started listing LP-yCurve tokens in deployed contracts for staking to earn CRV. This led to premine accusations. The Block analyst Larry Cermak estimates they mined 80,000 CRV ($2.4 million at the time) before the project team’s statement on the legality of the token launch.

4/ Meanwhile, since the anon contract was deployed, some people started staking yCRV tokens (Curve LP tokens) into the newly deployed staking contracts and started earning CRV — results to accusations of premine. Tokens started trading on DEXes too. https://t.co/mp8R3h3CVj

— Steven (@Dogetoshi) August 14, 2020

Man what a dissapointment the Curve launch has been. Nearly 80,000 tokens, $2.4 million at current prices, were premined while the team was “checking”. Handled terribly by everyone involved.

— Larry Cermak (@lawmaster) August 14, 2020

https://forklog.com/chto-takoe-dohodnoe-fermerstvo-v-defi-i-kak-na-nem-zarabatyvayut/

Three hours later, mining became available to all community participants. The Curve team deployed a staking system on top of the anon-deployed @0xc4ad contract.

5/ Roughly 3 hours passed before Curve announced that they thought the anon deployed contract was legit and launched CRV and the staking system on top of the anon-deployed contract. CRV token prices ranged from $40k to ~$12.

— Steven (@Dogetoshi) August 14, 2020

Such turn of events left many puzzled. Cermak called it “theatre” and saw abuses by Curve’s technical staff who stood to benefit from such a scenario.

“Oh look, someone just deployed our contract” is obviously threatre. This was planned and they should have at least informed the community what would follow if this happened. They of course didn’t and it advantaged the most technical people that disregarded all warnings

— Larry Cermak (@lawmaster) August 14, 2020

Colleague of Cermak, @Dogetoshi, believes the Curve team should redeploy the contract, as otherwise this would damage their project.

7/ My own opinions: I thought the Curve team should have redeployed the contract, since this whole situation likely damaged their brand.

Still think the product is cool and degens will prob still buy it/farm it. Matcha’s website broke because people were querying it like crazy.

— Steven (@Dogetoshi) August 14, 2020

According to @Dogetoshi, Curve accounted for a quarter of all record trading volumes on DEXs last month.

Just want to reiterate that it is unfair to compare Curve to the recently launched hype coins. It has a working product. It made up 24% of last month’s ATH DEX volumes. pic.twitter.com/yQdoxhKLCE

— Steven (@Dogetoshi) August 14, 2020

The CRV token, after listing, experienced strong price volatility in the range of $15.4-$53.4 and, at the time of writing, was trading around $16.2. According to CoinGecko, the asset by market cap ranks 164th.

Earlier, the Yam DeFi protocol token with assets of $600 million collapsed by 99% in 24 hours.

Just want to reiterate that it is unfair to compare Curve to the recently launched hype coins. It has a working product. It made up 24% of last month’s ATH DEX volumes. pic.twitter.com/yQdoxhKLCE

— Steven (@Dogetoshi) August 14, 2020

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