After selling $10 million worth UNI, the fund was recently in trouble after it was sold as part of the 1 million UNI donated to Uniswap. On June 12, the Defi Education Fund tweeted that it had sold half the funding. “With the help from @GenesisTrading we sold 500k UNI to fund the efforts at the Defi Educational Fund. We will be sending 500k UNI directly to Genesis in the next 24 hours and receiving $10.2M USDC back. The community immediately reacted to the organization, most of which pointed out that the UNI was sold during a dip in token’s value and the need to exchange such a large sum.
Uniswap Governance
The Uniswap governance proposal which led to the funding stated that 1 million UNI would be liquidated in the next 4 years. Concerns have been raised about the growing centralization of Uniswap’s governance, which was already part the discussion when the proposal first was presented.
Education Fund Signers
Larry Sukernik, one the signers of the Education Fund, has been targeted by the crypto community. He was found to have sold approximately 2.6k UNI (equivalent to about $45.6k) before the Fund’s move.
Sukernik responded by tweeting:
“On-chain history does not tell the whole story. 1. The UNI I sold from my address was a result of a grant that a group of us received a few months back. We just noticed it was there so we sold it for USDC to ship it to people. The UNI for DEF had already been sold at the time of the sale.
Igor Igamberdiev (the person who reported the sale) replied by pointing to the fact that no USDC had ever been sent to any other users and that the sale did not take place on-chain at that time. Others pointed out that Igor Igamberdiev was the managing member of this fund and raised concerns about the conflict of interests.
Chris Blec, founder of DeFi Watch, started a governance thread requesting that the Defi Education Fund managers provide complete transparency to the community regarding the funding received.
Sukernik should be removed from the fund’s board of directors, as it could have a negative impact on the fund’s future mission.
The Fund’s Existence
The Defi Education Fund was created with the idea to create a non-profit entity in the United States that would “provide grants for legal, educational, or political engagement”, citing the increasingly turbulent regulatory environment surrounding cryptocurrency.
According to the proposal, 1 million UNI would be used to finance policy-maker education, thought leader and research, Legal firepower and public relations, grassroots advocacy and best practices.
The initial committee was proposed with 7 members. They include Larry Sukernik, cofounder of Reverie; Rebecca Rettig at Aave Companies; Jake Chervinsky at Compound Labs & Strategic Advisor to Variant Fund; Marc Boiron at dYdX Trading General Counsel; and Marvin Ammori at Uniswap Labs Chief Legal Officer.
Conclusion
As it prepares to advocate for DeFi-friendly policies around the globe, the fund has already begun looking for a Policy director. DeFi advocates have been concerned about being proactive in DeFi education, as the DeFi niche has a value of $56.65 trillion.