DAO cast a ballot and unanimously agreed to donate $4 million to a Washington crypto lobbying group. This is in the attempt to shift the attention of regulators from the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry.
They raised funds through a sale that took place on August 5, 2021 where they managed to sell 1000 lobby lobster NFTs in just under an hour.
The idea by DAO to raise money by selling lobby lobsters emerged after discussions between Hayden Adams of Uniswap and Kain Warwick of Synthetix regarding the best way to support lobby groups supporting the DeFi industry.
During the sale, each NFT was selling at 1ETH, which is approximately $390 and by selling all the NFTs, they were able to raise the 4$ million which has been set for the donation.
At the time of the sale, they were yet to agree the donations destination. However, after another poll, they selected Coin Centre, a non-profit research and advocacy organization, as the beneficiary of the proceeds.
The NFTs will be resold on the OpenSea market. They will then deposit the proceeds in DAOs multisig wallets for further donations. 2.5% of the proceeds will go to OpenSea, and 7.5% to support other lobbying organizations and groups. A communal voting then will take place to determine the benefiting organization.
The funds aim to support and educate lobbying organizations that support the Decentralized Finance industry (DeFi).
This action by lobby lobsters further received praise and recognition from big names in the crypto and DeFi ecosystems; Some of the people who praised them include Fiskantes, Foobar, and Tom Shaughnessy, the co-founder of Delphi Digital.
DeFi to Face Tough Times Ahead
The crypto world is preparing for a stern examination in the coming months from the SEC. This comes after an announcement made in mid-August 2021 by Gary Gensler, the SECs commissioner chair, stating that they are interested in managing and regulating decentralized money.
In addition to that, in the beginning of September, Gary marked crypto as exceptionally theoretical during a meeting with the European Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee.
Two days after this meeting, SEC launched a test into the decentralized trade Uniswap; which puts DeFi in a challenging position.
After these happenings, SEC threatened to sue CoinBase for offering a lend product at a high-interest rate of 4%. The sue threats from SEC revolves around if the product by CoinBase is a security.
The threat stirred a massive reaction in Twitter. With Armstrong, the CEO of CoinBase, claiming that SEC has been very problematic in the recent past.
This also led to Andreessen Horowitz, the funding giant of crypto, hiring former Washington officials to prepare for the changing political attitudes concerning crypto. They invited the former Republican commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Brian Quintenz, to advise on crypt’s best policies and arrangements.
Also, Binance.US hired Brian Brooks, former chief legal officer of CoinBase, as the CEO but resigned after three months over strategic differences.
What’s Next for DeFi?
Following recent happenings, the future of DeFi looks pretty uneven. However, could the decision to pump vast amounts of cash in Washington help them survive the tough times?