Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at Delphi Labs, and Collins Belton, managing partner at Brookwood P.C., dive into the controversial case of Avi Eisenberg, the self-described “applied game theorist” who was arrested in Puerto Rico on Dec. 26 on market manipulation and fraud charges. The two crypto lawyers discuss the case’s potential impact on DeFi and DAO governance — and whether “code is law” stands a chance in the courtroom.

Show highlights:

  • whether Avi’s manipulation of the markets constitutes fraud 
  • debating the crypto maxim “code is law”
  • whether it’s wrong to use DeFi code in a “smarter way”
  • how the Mango Markets exploit happened due to poor governance management
  • whether crypto should be regulated from the securities angle or the commodities angle
  • the consequences of Avi’s arrest for the DeFi space
  • whether MEV could constitute market manipulation, even if it’s democratized for everybody
  • the role of DAOs and whether early-stage projects should maintain some level of centralization
  • how DAOs could be designed to have better mechanisms in order to deal with potential issues
  • whether members of the Mango Markets DAO are liable because of their role in designing the system
  • how Avi was “naive” to think he could avoid legal liability by returning the funds
  • why Gabe thinks credit protocols are socially positive and why he hopes that prosecutors won’t “throw everyone in jail”

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Links

Guests:

Gabriel:

Collins:

Episode Links: 

Previous coverage of Unchained on Avi Eisenberg and the Mango Markets exploit: 

Mango Markets exploit

Read the episode transcript here