It’s been reported that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently investigating decentralized finance service, BarnBridge. Their Duly Elected Legal Council, Douglas Park, has instructed the team to close their liquidity pools, suspend all work related to the DeFi product they offer, and pause compensations to individuals. While there really is currently a lack of details about the SEC’s investigation, we know that BarnBridge offers customers fixed-rate swaps on yield through lenders such as Aave.
When the news was made public, the procol’s Total Value Locked (TVL) dropped to ~$1.2 million, whereas it had been as high as $500 million previously. BardBridge’s BBS token also fell 8% on Friday owing to the news. BarnBridge join s numerous other crypto-based entities that are either being investigated by, charged by or making settlements with the SEC. It’s believed that this precedent of decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) being held liable as ‘persons’ under the Commodities Exchange Act was set by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Ooki DAO, being the first to respond to such allegations, was handed a penalty of $643,542 and immediately must cease operations, which shows just how serious the situation might be.