Regulatory action against Mango Markets exploiter is a win for DeFi — Moody’s

Published at: Feb. 2, 2023

Recent charges brought against Mango Markets exploiter Avraham Eisenberg will have a positive impact on the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, according to credit rating firm Moody’s. 

In a Jan. 31 note from Moody’s Investor Service, AVP of decentralized finance Cristiano Ventricelli stated that enforcement actions brought by the two leading U.S. market regulators in January mean that DeFi is moving towards a “safer and more welcoming environment.”

“The fact that both the SEC and CFTC took action against market manipulation by an alleged rogue trader is a credit positive for the industry as a whole.

Ventricelli stated that these actions could “improve oversight of the DeFi industry” which has for the most part been a difficult area to regulate due to the lack of clarity regarding jurisdiction over open-source protocols.

On Jan. 20, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against the alleged market manipulator, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed charges against Eisenberg on Jan. 9.

Ventricelli had made a similar comment on Jan. 26 as per a tweet from Moody's Twitter page but went into more detail in the Jan. 31 note.

A man has been charged with orchestrating an attack on the Mango Markets trading platform to steal $116M of #crypto assets. Moody’s Cristiano Ventricelli comments on the US Securities and Exchange Commission's move. More on digital finance: https://t.co/pGDxM9u42T@SECGov pic.twitter.com/HLFILPGQOR

— Moody's Investors Service (@MoodysInvSvc) January 25, 2023

The report suggested that DeFi is “no longer a no man’s land,” referring to Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank speech to the European parliament in June 2022, where she argued that Europe’s crypto legislation, Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), should be “expanded” to include a framework for decentralized finance.

Ventricelli suggested that this safer environment could lead to wider adoption amongst institutional investors “such as banks,” as well as retail investors.

Related: DeFi sees exploits and exit scam drama in the last week of 2022: Finance Redefined

CFTC’s filing alleged that Eisenberg “engaged in a manipulative and deceptive scheme to artificially inflate the price of swaps offered by Mango Markets.”

While the SEC’s head of crypto assets and cyber unit, David Hirsch alleged in its filing that Eisenberg actions “left the platform at a deficit” when the security price returned to its pre-manipulation level.

Mango Labs, the company behind Mango Markets filed its own lawsuit against Eisenberg on Jan. 25, demanding $47 million in damages plus interest over allegedly exploiting the platform in October 2022.

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