Synthetic reverse FUD

It seems someone is not coping well with the whole Terra/Luna omnishambles. At all. Look at what landed in our inbox this morning.

13 May 2022
PRESS RELEASE

GAM Holding AG is not in negotiations with Terraform Labs to support
the Luna stablecoin

A press release purporting to come from GAM Holding was issued at
23.00 UK time on 12 May. There is no truth in the story and GAM did
not issue a press release. GAM has strict controls on the
dissemination of press releases, and we are investigating the source
of this story and how it came to be published.

The bogus “press release” went out on the pay-per-post AccessWire service yesterday evening with GAM’s logo, a quote from its chief executive Peter Sanderson and even a phone number to contact the firm’s flack. (FTAV tried calling it multiple times but it didn’t work, sadly.) At pixel time it’s still on the AccessWire website but just in case that changes, we duplicate the text below:

GAM Holding Could be Terra’s White Knight

Leading Asset Manager Could Bail Out UST in Deal Worth Billions

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2022 / Leading asset manager GAM Holding AG is pleased to announce that it is negotiating with Terraform Labs (Terra) to help support its Luna stablecoin (UST). GAM is expected to invest between $2 billion and $3 billion to absorb excess supply of UST during its current sell-off. The move seeks to re-establish UST’s peg to the US dollar.

“Our interest in supporting UST reflects our interest in supporting a vibrant, innovative, and resilient crypto market,” notes GAM CEO Peter Sanderson. “We firmly believe in Terra’s ecosystem. Just as importantly, we believe in UST’s algorithmic approach to valuation. When investors have proper incentives, they naturally trade in ways that maintain price stability. When black swan events impact markets, opportunities blossom. We see opportunity in UST’s recent activity, and continue to see promise in Terra’s broader strategy.”

Predictably, the fake release was immediately picked up by distribution silos plus a medley of famously scrupulous crypto outlets and social media accounts. Desperation springs eternal, especially in the world of digital assets.

This is absolutely huge news for #LUNA, #UST, and the entire #Crypto space!!!! We must save #LUNA !!!! GAM Holding Could be #Terra‘s White Knight https://t.co/An3acCwtF0

— BitBookKeeper #CryptoTax #Accountant (@Bitbookkeepers) May 13, 2022

To the credit of the crypto bros behind the release there is an admirable lack of typos. The fake Sanderson quote has the exact right tenor of waffle. Being connoisseurs of the fake press release we cannot help but admire one that is a tad neater than most. And GAM has some history when it comes to dodgy investments, so maybe it seemed like a plausible candidate here.

But the idea that a struggling midsized Swiss asset manager would pump $3bn into an already imploded algorithmic stablecoin highlights just how tragicomically stupid the whole saga has become.

As tragic as the collapse has undoubtedly been for a lot of people who sank their life savings into magic internet money, they just need to realise that Terra/Luna is NGMI.

Further reading:
Earth to Bloomberg – FTAV
Earth to investors – FTAV
Sticky Fingerprints – FTAV