Who might have attacked UST: speculation on motives and regulation
Quote527 words
Speculative follow-up on the UST attacker: capital and sophistication point to an entity, estimated profit near 1bn USD. Considers Citadel and BlackRock as suspects and argues the collapse gives regulators and CBDC advocates the excuse they wanted.
Key claims
Attacker likely made around 1bn USD
Citadel AUM of 35bn would gain 3.5% from 1bn
Both Citadel and BlackRock publicly denied involvement
0/ Have also been asked a couple of times who the @terra_money attacker might be and what the motivations could be to perform such an attack
Highly speculative $LUNA / $UST (0/17) 🧵👇
1/ Please remember this is highly speculative! But assuming it was an attack, lets dive into what we know, think we know and suspect
2/ As outlined in my previous thread, the attacker supposedly borrowed 100k $BTC and bought $1bn $UST OTC. Hence a lot of capital was needed to carry out this attack
x.com/expctchaos/status/1524795643709079552
3/ Combined with the level of sophistication and "great" timing of the attack it seems likely that it was an entity rather than an individual
x.com/expctchaos/status/1524795646754029568
4/ As @OnChainWizard outlines in this thread, the attacker has likely made around 1bn USD from his strategy
x.com/OnChainWizard/status/1524123935570382851
5/ Early speculation on 4chan implied involvement of @Citadel
6/ But what could be @Citadel's motivation?
Well, Citadel’s AUM is 35 billion. If they were behind this they increased their AUM by 3.5% within only 72 hours. Seems tempting, doesn't it?
7/ Other speculation also throws @BlackRock into the mix. Based on the capital & brains they have at disposal this doesn't seem impossible at first glance
x.com/CryptoHarry_/status/1524403730699137025
8/ Surely that's not enough to prove @BlackRock's involvement but since they are invested in @circlepay, issuer of $USDC and competitor to @terra_money & $UST it would make sense that they want to see $LUNA fail
9/ Additionally, @BlackRock's close relationship to the U.S. government should also not be overlooked in all of this
10/ Why? Well, the U.S. government has always been strongly opposed to decentralized stablecoins like $UST as they fear to lose their monetary monopoly. Hence, they want to kill off stablecoin innovation by forcing stablecoin issuers to hold a banking license
11/ Its not rly a secret they want to force stablecoin issuers into the arms of TradFi banks, thereby saving TradFi's ass under the pretext of consumer protection. DeFi will still put a large part of TradFi out of business tho
12/ Nevertheless, the $UST debacle provides regulators (not only in the U.S.) with exactly the excuse they needed to impose strict regulations. Regulators won't be gentle
x.com/WuBlockchain/status/1524762884974444544
x.com/WuBlockchain/status/1524528461422899203
13/ Moreover, the $UST debacle helps govs / central banks to push the #CBDC narrative. While #CBDCs are not only bad, they are likely to be a privacy-invasive surveillance tool that will take away the last bit of financial privacy we have
x.com/Finoa_io/status/1522144322841415683
14/ So, were we fucked by greedy hedge funds and scared governments?
Well, idk but it surely sounds plausible
Hedge funds would literally do anything to make money and governments will surely do whatever it takes to save their TradFi friends & upgrade their surveillance toolkit
15/ The fact that both @Citadel and @BlackRock have publicly denied doesn't rly change anything
x.com/cryptomanran/status/1524473167695294464
x.com/BlackRock/status/1524525576849133570
16/ But again, this is speculation & I doubt that we will ever know the full truth
But what happened is significant, it is important & we should always keep in mind who we're up against
What I do know tho is that we won't let them stop us
x.com/twobitidiot/status/1426020410370449410
17/ DECENTRALIZATION IS THE FUTURE!!!✊✊✊
#WAGMI
QUOTING @zerokn0wledge_
0/ Even tho the $LUNA / $UST drama has already been covered extensively on Twitter, my five cents on what happened and what might be next Mega-🧵 on @terra_money (0/41) 🌖👇
0/ Even tho the $LUNA / $UST drama has already been covered extensively on Twitter, my five cents on what happened and what might be next Mega-🧵 on @terra_money (0/41) 🌖👇
5 images on X
What came next · since 12 May 2022
Show how the covered asset moved
This market take reads the setup without making a call on the token, so price moves since publication are shown as market context.
Covered, no call
Since then
No follow-up pieces on this subject yet. This is the latest take.
Daily closes in USD from DefiLlama and Yahoo Finance. Only a bullish or bearish call in a thesis or market take is tracked; explainers, lists, maps and mentions are neutral context. Not financial advice.