Ren Protocol Users Face Potential Losses During Post-Alameda Wind Down

Users of the Alameda-backed Ren Protocol risk losing their money if they don’t take immediate action, warned the project team over Twitter on Thursday.

The cross-chain bridge said the upcoming upgrade (Ren 2.0) to its existing product (Ren 1.0) may not be compatible with the prior version. 

Disconnecting From Alameda

Ren encouraged users to quickly burn tokens issued by their bridge service in return for their underlying assets or to “risk losing them,” as a result of the upgrade. 

Like other bridges, Ren lets users deposit a cryptocurrency from its native blockchain (ex. BTC on Bitcoin) in return for a tokenized representation of that asset (ex. renBTC), which circulates on Ethereum. This gives Bitcoin holders access to the apps, fees, and transaction speeds available on other blockchains. 

The upgrade to Ren 2.0 is intended to make Ren an open-source and community-controlled project, while also severing all ties with the now-bankrupt Alameda Research. 

While the upgrade has always been in the works, the Ren development team has opted to speed up the transition after last month’s bankruptcy filing. With the trading desk’s collapse, the Ren development team now only has funding that will sustain it until the end of the year. 

“Marking this event as the end of Alameda’s involvement in the project by sunsetting Ren 1.0, safeguards the reputation, integrity, and hence long-term prospects of the Ren ecosystem,” said Ren in a blog post dated November 18th. 

The State of renBTC

Within the post, Ren noted that it would shut down Ren 1.0 “after 30 days,” leaving both mints and burns of their tokenized assets impossible from then onwards. 

MakerDAO has already agreed to dispose of renBTC as stablecoin collateral due to the likelihood that the asset de-pegs in the future. 

At present, renBTC remains price-pegged to BTC, trading for $17,419 at writing time. However, other Bitcoin-pegged tokens like solBTC collapsed after last month’s events, due to redemptions for the asset being directly provided by FTX.