Market maker Wintermute has accused the NEAR Foundation and its subsidiary Aurora Labs of failing to fulfil an $11 million stablecoin redemption deal.

In a Tweet, Wintermute founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy stated that NEAR has failed to uphold their commitment in facilitating the sale of $11.2 million USN, an algorithmic stablecoin that was discontinued last year.

Gaevoy clarified that Wintermute, acting on a proprietary basis, entered into the transaction with the confidence that they could redeem USN to USDT on a 1-to-1 basis. Despite public statements from the NEAR Foundation and introductions to Aurora, Gaevoy claimed that NEAR refused to honour their commitments when Wintermute submitted the redemption, and after 2.5 months, no USDT had been received.

According to Gaevoy, the NEAR Foundation and Aurora are reneging on their redemption offer.

What Is USN And Why Does It Matter?

USN is an algorithmic stablecoin that was first launched in 2022 by Decentral Bank, which claimed to be an independently operated and community-run project with no direct financial assistance from the NEAR Foundation.

However, the NEAR Foundation did establish a $40 million fund to support USN to USDT conversions after USN became undercollateralized.

Despite this support from the NEAR Foundation, Gaevoy accused them of withholding funds necessary for redemption after Wintermute's involvement in facilitating asset liquidation for FTX's bankruptcy estate.

Wintermute had sold USN in order to facilitate asset liquidation for FTX’s bankruptcy estate, based on the NEAR Foundation’s assurance and direct communications with Aurora Labs that redemptions would be straightforward.

Wintermute claims that Aurora is only offering to pay 20 per cent of the total amount, and Gaevoy warns that Wintermute would pursue “all legal avenues” against NEAR and Aurora.

Gaevoy says that the post was the “last and public attempt” in asking the NEAR Foundation to complete the redemption, and that if they continue to be unreasonable, Wintermute is “fully committed to switching into a full-time adversarial mode”.