MKR auctions ended over the weekend with 20,980 MKR sold for 5.3 million DAI. An address associated with the Maker Foundation sent 14,271 MKR to an address associated with Paradigm.

Cryptocurrency venture capital firm Paradigm was the biggest winner in a series of MKR auctions. These were aimed at covering around USD 4.5 million of undercapitalized debt.

The auctions, which lasted from March 19th to March 28th, raised a total of 5.3 million DAI, the MakerDAO system’s stablecoin anchored to the US dollar. During the process, 20,980 MKR, the MakerDAO protocol’s governance token, were sold at an average price of USD 296.35 each. The event had the participation of 36 sole bidders.

During that time, there were a total of 106 auctions. To participate, each person promised to put 50,000 DAI with the possibility of winning up to 250 MKR from each auction.

Through its Twitter account, Paradigm announced that it won 72 of the 106 auctions. It also said that it had paid a total of 3.6 million DAI for these governance tokens.

As previously reported, three addresses associated with the nonprofit organization that helps maintain Maker’s protocol, MakerDAO Foundation, seemed to have won the first 33 auctions. Last week, the Maker Foundation explained that it did not purchase MKR tokens for itself, but instead helped third parties participate in the auctions.

At the time, the Maker Foundation said that it offered limited technical assistance to some bidders to facilitate their timely and effective participation in auctions.

In the following auctions, all three addresses continued their winning streak and eventually won around 14,295 MKR, according to research.

Interestingly, after the three addresses sent 14,295 MKR to the address of the operation of the foundation, it transferred 14,271 MKR to a new address. Of that amount, 7,098 MKR reached this new address from the address of the operation of the foundation through a multi-signature wallet.

The new address most likely belongs to Paradigm, which could now have around 14,000 MKR from the auctions, since it won 68% in them and each auction awarded between 180 and 250 MKR. The firm Paradigm did not make further comments besides those that it had previously posted on its  Twitter account, while the Maker Foundation has not yet said anything in that respect.

The amount of MKR that Paradigm recently purchased will add to its current possession of governance tokens since another address associated with the venture capital firm has around 15,352 MKR. In December of last year, Paradigm and Dragonfly Capital invested USD 27.5 million in the foundation in exchange for around 5.5% of the total MKR token provision.

The objective of MKR auctions was to cover USD 4.5 million of debt in the Maker ecosystem. This community was created after certain liquidators won the collateral liquidation auctions with 0 DAI on March 12th, called “Black Thursday” since then.

In the MakerDAO system, borrowers obtain DAI by depositing ETH, BAT or USDC as collateral. However, due to the sharp drop in the price of Ether on March 12th, a significant number of loans fell below the required 150% collateral limit, triggering liquidation auctions.

By Alexander Salazar

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here