Summary
This proposal authorizes the DAO to spend $500,000 worth of stablecoins from its treasury in order to purchase the 15,316,692 FOX that is currently locked in the Rari Tribe LaaS smart contract.
Abstract
In late-November 2021, ShapeShift DAO entered into an agreement with Fei Protocol whereby it supplied FOX in return for improved liquidity on decentralized exchanges. This program, which also provided the DAO with TRIBE rewards, was part of Tribe’s “Liquidity-as-a-service” program.
Following a hack of Rari Fuse and the onset of perceived regulatory pressures, FEI Labs has proposed winding down the entire FEI protocol. As part of these plans, the TRIBE community is deciding what to do with the various tokens in its treasury–of which the aforementioned 15.3M FOX is included.
The TRIBE community is currently deciding on two possible approaches for what to do with this FOX. The first path entails accepting an offer the ShapeShift DAO made on August 31st, 2022: ShapeShift DAO OTC Proposal for Tribe’s FOX - Proposals - Tribe. Should the TRIBE community accept this offer via its governance process, the DAO would be able to purchase the 15,316,692 for $500,000. This would represent a purchase price of $0.0326, versus the current market price of $0.06.
Alternatively, TRIBE governance may instead turn down the ShapeShift offer and instead distribute the FOX on a pro-rata basis to all TRIBE holders.
Motivation & Benefits
There are two primary reasons why ShapeShift may benefit from completing this OTC offer:
1.) It would purchase a large amount of FOX at a substantial discount to current market prices
2.) It would eliminate the threat of the pro-rata distribution causing price pressure on FOX. (The thinking here is that while not all TRIBE holders receiving FOX would quickly sell their holdings, even a portion of these holders swapping out of FOX could push the token far below pre-distribution levels.
Specification
If this proposal passes, the following steps will be taken:
Contingent upon the approval of the OTC sale by TRIBE governance, the DAO’s Treasury would coordinate with Tribe DAO to facilitate a swap of 500,000 in stablecoins for 15,316,692 FOX. The precise details of the exchange will be determined in tandem with the relevant members of the TRIBE community.
In the event the OTC sale is turned down by the TRIBE community, this proposal will be rendered moot.
Drawbacks
The decision to spend $500,000 from our stablecoin reserves cannot be taken lightly. Given current projections, this would take a month off of our runway, meaning that we’d run out of stables in May 2023, rather than June 2023.
Additionally, it could be argued that even though it may seem like a good deal now, purchasing FOX in this current market environment is not a smart idea. Should the bear market persist, FOX could drop far below current levels. The DAO already has ample FOX in its treasury, and exchanging stablecoins for a depreciating asset (assuming more market bearishness) is arguably not a smart decision given the DAO’s limited runway.
Similarly, given the current shaky market it wouldn’t be surprising to see more weakness in the price of FOX. One potential scenario here is that the price of FOX could crash during the interim governance period, rendering our OTC offer less attractive from the DAO’s perspective
Vote
For: Authorize the DAO’s Gnosis Safe signers to send TRIBE $500,000 in stablecoins in exchange for the full amount of FOX currently held by Tribe DAO (15,316,692 FOX).
Against: No exchange is authorized.