Waves CEO Announces Plan to Launch a New Stablecoin; Users Draw Parallels with Terra
The CEO and founder of Waves Platform, Sasha Ivanov, announced plans to launch a new stablecoin, triggering a storm of negative comments on Twitter.
Ivanov wrote that he would not disclose additional details about the coin until the issue of decoupling Neutrino USD (USDN) from the dollar’s exchange rate is resolved.
He later explained that issuing the stablecoin was necessary to create a “protocol more attuned to current market conditions.”
Meanwhile, Ivanov assured that with USDN “everything will be alright”:
“So, guys, please keep your breath, Waves is not going to zero, lol. USDN and the tokens related to it, SURF and NSBT, will live. In this respect, nothing changes.”
According to the Waves CEO, the new stablecoin could in the long run also help fix the problem with the VIRES token. In April, Ivanov said that the address linked to Alameda Research borrowed over 630,000 WAVES tokens (about $31 million) through the Vires.Finance platform at around 20% per year.
In the comments, users criticised the launch of the new coin.
I appreciate your responses, but I still don’t think it’s a good idea to have a new stablecoin. It just emphasizes the failure of USDN. I have years of my savings in VIRES now vested in USDN. Please don’t turn this into another UST/USTC situation.— anne (@AnnieDonic) December 20, 2022
They saw in this a confirmation of USDN’s failure and drew parallels with Terra’s reboot after the devaluation of the algorithmic stablecoin UST and its native token LUNA.
“And perhaps we’ve had enough of these ‘new coins’? WEST, SWOP, EGG, WCT, WX… and a multitude of others. Is this Waves’ business model, proven by time? We’ll roll one coin — create a new one — roll a new one — create another… Profit!”,
— one user
As of writing, Ivanov continues to participate actively in the thread, not always keeping to the bounds of civility.
Requests for comment from ForkLog to the Waves founder went unanswered.
In a ForkLog comment, the CMO and co‑founder of Symbiosis Finance, Nick Avramov, expressed cautious optimism about the announced launch. He said the new coin would stay away from the “tainted history with Alameda and Vires,” and that the team’s experience would prevent the cost of the new asset from decoupling.
Avramov did not agree with the analogy between Waves and Terra.
“In Terra’s case the project had already fallen into the so‑called death spiral, and in those realities a reboot would not have solved the project’s fundamental problems. Waves’ situation seems somewhat less dire, so even amid short‑term discontent from the community a very positive outcome from launching a new stablecoin is possible,”
— the expert argues.
Avramov noted that utility for a stablecoin is even more important than for a typical volatile token. Terra’s UST got trapped by high yields in a yield-bearing protocol, even though there was no other major use case.
“If Waves manages to build use cases for the new stablecoin beyond lending/speculation, it could attain a high standing. But time will tell,”
— he said.
Recall that after the algorithmic stablecoin Neutrino USD (USDN) lost parity with the US dollar, the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance, an association of South Korean crypto exchanges, issued an investor warning about risks linked to the Waves platform.
The WAVES token is used as collateral for USDN. The algorithmic stablecoin lost parity with the US dollar at the end of August and has yet to restore its peg.
Recall that in April Ivanov accused Alameda Research of manipulating the WAVES price and organizing a FUD-campaign to panic-sell the asset.
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