Team members of the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol BarnBridge are being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the latest regulatory tussle faced by a crypto company in the country.
BarnBridge offers interest rate swaps that allow for any variable yield offered by crypto platforms, such as Aave or Compound, to be swapped to a fixed rate. It had just over $1.2 million locked tokens as of Friday. At its peak the protocol held $500 million in users' assets.
“I am letting you know that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Barnbridge DAO and individuals associated with the DAO,” wrote Douglas Park, duly elected legal counsel to Barnbridge DAO, in a Discord message on Friday morning.
BarnBridge’s BOND tokens slumped over 10% following the Discord message posted by Park.
“Because the SEC’s investigation is ongoing and non-public, I am limited in the information that I will share publicly,” Park added.
Park said that existing liquidity pools on BarnBridge should be closed and that all work on Barnbridge-related products should stop given the SEC actions. Individuals submitting work will not be compensated, he added.
Further specifics of the investigation have not been publicly released.