According to Foresight News, the Aave community has initiated a 'temperature check' vote for the first network launch under the 'GHO Cross-Chain Rollout Plan'. The vote is set to conclude on April 23. The candidate networks include Avalanche, Arbitrum, Optimism, Scroll, and Metis. Currently, Avalanche is leading with a support rate of 49.77%. The proposal indicates that the plan aims to incorporate the GHO stablecoin into its ecosystem's network collaboration. The phased rollout method will allow the DAO to launch cross-chain GHO deployment in a controlled and secure manner.

In previous news from Foresight News, Aave Labs announced the launch of its stablecoin GHO's cross-chain functionality on the testnet through Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). Currently, users can transfer GHO from Ethereum to Base and Arbitrum, and the expansion to Optimism, Avalanche, and other networks will be accelerated.

Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news’ editorial.

I recently wrote about crypto stabilizing partially thanks to regulatory clarity alongside the growing and valuable role of traditional finance (tradfi) players. But as the industry has been inundated with discourse surrounding Bitcoin ETFs, the role of institutions, AI’s blockchain aspirations, and heightening, yet still unclear, regulatory activity, DAOs have been pushed out of the limelight. 

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Even before the previous bull run, DAOs became a popular avenue for blockchain-based entities to rid themselves of centralized leadership by becoming member-owned communities managed through a decentralized computer system using smart contracts.

This system gave projects an inroad for decentralized fundraising, granting voting rights and critical decision-making to those participating in the funding. As the crypto market increased 12-fold between early 2020 and late 2021, investor interest grew in the blockchain space, with many VCs preferring to invest in tokens over equity in a web3 startup. 

The World Economic Forum even wrote about DAOs potentially being the “business structures of the future,” calling them the “natural entity of web3.” Now, as the crypto industry trends up in both retail and institutional activity, and the industry can once again boast about innovations—particularly in defi and tokenized real-world assets—it only makes sense to wonder what the role of DAOs will be going forward. 

State of Crypto 2022 Report | Source: a16z Peering into the DAO crystal ball

As full-fledged business entities, DAOs face an unclear legal status, but that hasn’t limited their expansion. DAOs are no longer confined to lending and borrowing protocols, exchanges, funding, and gaming; they can now expand to facilitate community-building, bloom collaborations, and spark innovation.  

For example, Friends With Benefits is a type of social DAO focused on community and relationship building and fostering creativity while giving its members full access to exclusive events and gatherings—both in-person and online. It also serves as a professional network for developers, artists, and creative content creators to collaborate and find inspiration. 

The DAO route is also becoming desirable for memecoin and NFT projects that already have large, dedicated followings. A recent example here is the Elon Musk-inspired memecoin project Dogelon Mars, which recently transitioned to a DAO following an anonymous donation of $350,000. Upon receiving the funds, its team turned to their community to see what should be done with the donation. Unsurprisingly, the community overwhelmingly opted to burn the equivalent amount of the donation in Dogelon Mars’s native $ELON token to boost its scarcity. 

Strong and vocal communities make NFT, web3, and gaming projects perfect candidates for DAO structures. While still leveraging blockchain technology, some DAOs operate in new ways that interact with the world outside of web3. 

VitaDAO, for instance, is a community-owned collective that funds and supports research into longevity to improve people’s quality of life. Members holding VITA tokens can select specific research projects for the DAO to support while contributing to governance decisions—with the ultimate goal of making progress in the fight against age-related diseases. 

As blockchain technology grows in use cases, expect to see more DAO use cases as organizations seek to give power and a voice to their communities. 

Like most aspects and sectors within the broader crypto and blockchain ecosystem, DAOs offer undeniable advantages and benefits alongside unique challenges and complexities. Ultimately, their effectiveness comes down to how they navigate and manage community relations and regulatory uncertainty, and how they execute their vision. 

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Mango Markets Exploiter Avraham Avi Eisenberg has been convicted of fraud and manipulation charges related to the Mango Markets exploit by a federal court in Manhattan. 

Mango Markets fell victim to a hack in October 2022 after the price of the platform’s native MNGO token was manipulated, leading to the loss of $110 million. 

Mango Markets Hacker Convicted 

Prosecutors stated that Avraham Eisenberg, a crypto trader, operated under a false identity and allegedly engaged in market manipulation to drive up the price of the platform’s native MNGO token and related contracts. Eisenberg ultimately exploited an exchange feature and withdrew $110 million in cryptocurrency with no plans to repay the funds in question. Prosecutors stated that Eisenberg manipulated the price of the MNGO token to trick the system and acquire illicit funds while perpetrating a deliberate and well-thought-out fraud against Mango Markets. Assistant US Attorney Thomas Burnett sought to convince the jury of Eisenberg’s intentions to “take the money and run,” alleging the fraud was meticulously planned and executed. Following the exploit, Eisenberg submitted an anonymous proposal to Mango Market’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). He offered to return $67 million of the stolen funds in the proposal. In exchange, he wanted to keep the remaining $43 million, along with a promise of no legal action by Mango Markets. 

Eisenberg also fled to Israel from Puerto Rico. However, the Mango Markets DAO rejected the proposal. Following his return to Puerto Rico, Eisenberg was apprehended by US authorities and has been in custody since, with the judge calling him a flight risk ahead of his impending trial. 

Eisenberg’s Defense 

Eisenberg’s defense team was led by crypto lawyer Brian Klein, who argued that his client’s trades on Mango Markets were lawful, compliant with the decentralized protocol’s rules at the time, and fully aligned with the protocol’s functionalities. However, the prosecution could counter every argument, arguing that Eisenberg had malicious intent from the beginning. To bolster their argument, the prosecution also presented evidence of Eiseberg’s internet search history related to market manipulation and fraud and highlighted his attempt to flee to Israel following the exploit. After deliberations, the jury concluded that Eisenberg had taken advantage of an ineffective price oracle to deceive the system.

This, according to the jury, constituted fraudulent behavior. As a result, the jury found Eisenberg guilty of all charges, with the crypto trader now facing a prison sentence of up to 20 years. However, the sentencing is yet to be determined. Eisenberg himself did not testify during the trial but played a fairly active role in his defense, taking notes and discussing the questions with his attorneys. Following the conviction, the MNGO token registered a considerable surge, rising by over 11% over the past 24 hours.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Avraham ‘Avi’ Eisenberg, a figure in the digital finance sector, was found guilty in relation to a major security breach at Mango Markets, where over $110 million was compromised.

In December 2022, Eisenberg was arrested in Puerto Rico, facing charges of commodities fraud, market manipulation, and wire fraud linked to the Mango Markets exploit. The incident occurred in October 2022 when Eisenberg injected $5 million of USDC stablecoin into Mango Markets.

According to court findings, Eisenberg manipulated the price of MNGO, the platform’s token, causing it to surge approximately 1,000% in one hour. The artificial increase allowed him to borrow and withdraw additional tokens, creating a significant negative debt position for the platform.

A few days after the exploit, Eisenberg claimed that his actions were part of a legal, highly profitable trading strategy, utilizing the platform’s features as intended. He later returned $67 million to Mango Markets, retaining $47 million as per a community governance vote.

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The trial, which started on April 9, spanned just over a week. In court, his defense maintained that Eisenberg employed a legal trading strategy, however, prosecutors branded his actions as fraudulent, according to Bloomberg.

During the trial, a U.K. customer testified about being unable to withdraw funds, losing $124,000.

“That’s not how DAOs work. There’s no one to speak to,” the customer stated, reflecting the decentralized core of such platforms.

Bloomberg also revealed that jurors saw evidence of Eisenberg searching online for market manipulation criminal and FBI surveillance terms. Mango Markets ultimately suffered a loss of around $116 million due to the exploit.

The price of MNGO is currently up 14% in the past 24 hours and sits at $0.0289, according to CoinGecko.

24-hour chart of MNGO from CoinGecko

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