Mark Cuban 'Hit' by Apparent DeFi Rug Pull

By Jeff Benson

The bottom has fallen out of TITAN, part of a "multi-chain partial-collateralized algorithmic stablecoin ecosystem" from Iron Finance. And billionaire DeFi investor Mark Cuban's wallet balance may have fallen with it.

The price of $TITAN fell to zero, prompting Iron Finance to call for all holders to withdraw liquidity from the pools after being hit by what it called a "bank run." Decrypt has reached out to Iron Finance for comment.

Cuban was one of those liquidity providers on QuickSwap, a decentralized exchange. He announced his involvement on June 13, tweeting: "Crypto Businesses make more sense than you think and valuing tokens is easier and makes more sense than you think."

Three days later, that investment makes less sense.

Iron Finance is behind two coins: $IRON and $TITAN. The former is a form of stablecoin, only instead of it being pegged to the dollar, 1 IRON gets you $0.75 of USDC stablecoin and $0.25 of $TITAN. The reverse is also true: burning $0.25 of TITAN  and sending $0.75 of USDC gets you one IRON.

IRON holders get TITAN as rewards and the returns were good, sending TITAN's price above $60. But the relationship between the two was highly unbalanced, causing the price of TITAN to plummet.

Responding to a suggestion that this was a rug pull—when founders abandon a project after cashing out—Cuban responded: "I got hit like everyone else. Crazy part is I got out, thought they were increasing their [total value locked] enough. Than [sic] Bam."

Cuban told Decrypt via email: "Live and learn."

This article has been updated.

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