Big development in the Avi saga. The trad000r/market manipulat000r was arrested in Puerto Rico on charges of commodities fraud.
Ser Eisenberg is familiar to readers from his recent tango with $AAVE, which involved manipulation of the $CRV token price to saddle AAVE with bad debt.
In a spot poll, sentiment is exceedingly clear.
We initially were torn, but then we remembered Avi declined to join our Llama Party last month, so we’re endorsing he get sent to the electric chair without a last meal.
Nothing here is legal advice tho.
Let’s clear up some common misconceptions right up front. A lot of people are citing any effect on $CRV. Nope.
For starters, the unsealed complaint does not reference $CRV, only the prior attack on Mango.
A lot of people got excited that Avi’s indictment for commodities fraud suggests that the DOJ is somehow conceding that $MNGO and/or $CRV should be considered as commodities and not securities. The complaint does not cite $CRV, but even if it did, @lex_node explains why this wouldn’t matter in any instance:
Nonetheless, just seeing the bad guy behind bars, Crypto Twitter deservedly took the opportunity to gloat. Just desserts taste the sweetest.
While the sense of vindication of an actual bad guy getting taken down for a change is cathartic, I’m going to ruin everybody’s pleasant coda to 2022 by suggesting people engage in complex thought, and struggle to reconcile two contradictory beliefs:
Avi being taken down is good for justice
Avi being taken down is bad for DeFi
Ugh, complex thought? It’s a Wednesday!
It may require typing a few extra characters to juggle conflicting ideas and express a complex viewpoint, but it is possible to do so concisely. Plus it has the bonus side effect of making you look like you possess the nuanced and tortured soul of a poet. Maybe that vibe plays well on dating apps?
Now… we don’t offer financial or legal advice in this Substack, but we’ll bite on the dating advice. Hornt men… don’t bother becoming a brooding, complex thinker if you want to make yourself more attractive to ladies. Too much work, too little benefit.
Instead, try this one easy cheat code: do hard time in prison!
Again, not legal advice. We’re just saying, the numbers don’t lie.
Always remember to prorate the length of your sentence by the time-value of grippy, otherwise you could find yourself at a net loss. And always talk with your lawyer first if you are considering committing financial crimes for the benefits to your sex life.
Crypto’s disproportionately virgin men learning they only need to build a Ponzi to get laid, and you’re still bearish?
Ladies, strategy definitely not recommended:
So Avi might have something to look forward soon after his release, but the rest of us are getting screwed a lot sooner. The charges against Avi amount to a Trojan Horse attack on crypto.
The issue at play here is that the prosecutors ruthlessly exploit cases against bad actors to push the boundaries of the law. This establishes precedent to use the law to attack the good actors. Some longer threads explain the effect in more depth:
So now we have to put ourselves into the ugly position of rooting in favor of scuzzbags like Avi if we want to be pro-crypto. That’s how this dirty game works.
For example, this precedent could mean the regulators have the ability to go after MEV bots.
Prosecutors could argue this recent transaction, for instance, could be “market manipulation.”
Maybe you’re of the camp that says MEV is bad. Call me old-fashioned though, but I prefer the system where sandwich attacks accrue to the benefit of honest, hard-working American validators as opposed to transferring wealth to North Korean hackers.
So while it’s quite nice that they arrested an actual villain, beware it’s a “stopped clock is right twice a day” effect. If your policy is to arrest absolutely anybody who uses cryptocurrency, you’ll inadvertently catch a couple of bad apples in the process.
The most coherent take, and maybe the least popular take, is to simply adhere strictly to the “code is law” ethos. Bullish ETC?
Disclaimers! To be super duper clear: do not commit crimes for any reason whatsoever.