Table of Contents:

· Founder publicly criticizes NEAR Foundation for "refusing to fulfill commitments"

· Community questions: USN stability insufficient

· NEAR Protocol co-founder becomes new CEO of NEAR Foundation

Founder publicly criticizes NEAR Foundation for "refusing to fulfill promises"

November 8th, Wintermute founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy posted on social media that NEAR Foundation and Aurora refused to fulfill their commitment to sell the stablecoin USN to FTX for a value of $11.2 million.

Gaevoy pointed out that Wintermute has been working with the bankruptcy estate of FTX since this spring to facilitate its asset liquidation and maximize the distribution to creditors. Therefore, Wintermute was asked to assist in the sale of 11.2 million USN, and Wintermute strictly executed the transaction, providing over $11 million in funds to FTX creditors.

Previously, BlockBeats reported on December 16, 2022 that Wintermute Asia PTE had joined the FTX creditors committee, allowing it to make credit decisions on behalf of entities in the Caribbean, Hong Kong, and the United States affected by FTX's bankruptcy. The committee will represent entities that will receive funds after the FTX bankruptcy process is completed, especially some unsecured creditors such as hedge funds Coincident Capital, GGC International, and Pulsar Global in Hong Kong.

However, the sale was based on NEAR's public declaration that it could exchange USN for USDT at a 1:1 ratio, but when Wintermute submitted a redemption request, NEAR refused to fulfill that promise. Wintermute stated that they have not received any USDT to date and were ultimately offered only 20% of the amount in question.

NEAR introduced us to Aurora, who confirmed in private chat that they could provide convenience for our specific situation within a few days. They refused to convert our USN to USDT in accordance with their public and private commitments, which caused direct harm to us.

Wintermute said that this will be the last public attempt to request NEAR Foundation to complete the redemption. If NEAR Foundation continues to do so, Wintermute will take legal action. In addition, Gaevoy also proposed an "alternative plan": we accept most of the cash owed to us as an investment in locked $NEAR tokens and promise to integrate the ecosystem.

Community questions the stability of USN

Regarding Wintermute's recent public criticism, as of the time of writing, NEAR and Aurora have not responded to it. However, the community has been continuously questioning NEAR Foundation and its stablecoin USN, saying "NEAR Foundation is even darker than hackers, taking 80%," "Your stablecoin is not very stable," and "USN was not originally created by the official team, but they made it too similar to what NEAR Foundation created."

According to public information, USN was first launched by Decentral Bank on April 25, 2022. Decentral Bank claims to be an independently operated community project without direct financial assistance from the NEAR Foundation. However, in October 2022, after USN was undercollateralized, the NEAR Foundation established a $40 million fund to support the conversion of USN to USDT.

Related reading: "Near native stablecoin USN analysis: fundamentally different from UST"

As a platform-based public chain, it would be unfair for Near to engage in activities that may lead to instability. If it continues to adopt the UST model with certain Ponzi properties, it may have a devastating impact on the entire Near ecosystem under extreme market conditions.

NEAR Protocol Co-founder Appointed as CEO of NEAR Foundation

Meanwhile, another event related to NEAR has sparked community controversy. On November 7th, the NEAR Foundation announced that Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, would return to the NEAR Foundation as CEO.

According to the official announcement from the NEAR Foundation, Illia's vision for an open network has been guiding the development of the ecosystem since the inception of NEAR and has become the foundation's guiding star. In his new role as CEO, he will be able to implement this vision in a more direct and streamlined manner.

I am honored and excited to officially join the NEAR Foundation and continue working with the ecosystem to achieve our shared vision of an open network. Effective coordination of decentralized ecosystems requires a lot of iteration and experimentation, and I am proud that NEAR has been committed to perfecting this process from the beginning. I believe that our next steps in mutual development will help us establish our respective verticals more quickly and collaborate more effectively.

On September 21st of this year, former CEO of NEAR Foundation, Marieke Flament, announced the end of her nearly two-year tenure: "After two years of crazy hard work, I have decided to step down as CEO of NEAR Foundation to make room for the next phase of development. The foundation will be led by the fearless Chris Donovan."

Now that NEAR has returned to its roots and appointed a new CEO for the NEAR Foundation, it has, to some extent, brought new choices for the development of NEAR.

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