DEUS Finance Used Scream User Funds to Defend their Stablecoin Peg

Hello,

I would like to present evidence of a fraud in the Fantom ecosystem. User funds are at great risk on both these platforms at the moment so I would like to make it known to the community.

We are discussing two platforms. DEUS Finance and Scream dot SH. DEUS was in the news recently for losing funds to exploits:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/deus-finance-exploit-hackers-get-away-with-3m-worth-of-dai-and-ether

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/143969/deus-finance-flash-loan-exploit-nets-hacker-13-million

As we can see, they have been exploited twice in the past 3 months. DEUS runs a stablecoin called "DEI". Like most "stablecoins", DEI's peg started to be tested in the wake of the UST collapse. DEI is unfortunately only backed by 37% collateral according to their team. The rest is algo. Therefore, it is quite difficult for them to maintain the peg under duress.

At some point, DEUS and Scream made a deal to list the DEI stablecoin on Scream.sh. The first transaction on Scream came May 12, 10 PM UTC. The announcement came short after, May 13 via Twitter:

https://mobile.twitter.com/Screamdotsh/status/1524875709818232835

Let's take a look at the Scream DEI contract. First of all, Scream.sh is a lending platform, similar to AAVE. You deposit collateral, then you can borrow a percentage of that collateral. Your collateral is given a Collateral Ratio which defines how much can be borrowed against it. The idea is that for more volatile assets, this ratio should be set lower. For reference, Scream lets you borrow 75% against USDC (0.75 collateral ratio).

Aside from the ratio, the platform needs to know the market price for an asset. This is usually collected by an oracle, and most platforms use Chainlink. For ref

When Scream added DEI, they set the parameters to 0.85 collateral ratio, and hard coded the value to 1. No oracles involved. Meaning, even if the market price for DEI is 0.60 (like it is today), the system values it at $1. And the 0.85 collateral ratio is higher than any other asset on the platform, including USDC and USDT (which are 0.75). Here's the contract for Scream DEI:

https://ftmscan.com/address/0x68c102aba11f5e086c999d99620c78f5bc30ecd8

We'll notice a few things for this token. It starts with a test transaction. Once that is made successfully, the fun begins. Minutes later, these transactions pour in:

https://ftmscan.com/tx/0x2834828184166a609ffe24c496f9047ca37bcdb8a16a8226098debab98c9bce3 (6.1M DEI Deposit)

https://ftmscan.com/tx/0x6b05ec9f937172767454f864557fffaf86e9b66dd6142df3c7ddc5743de4d95a (5.1M DEI Deposit)

https://ftmscan.com/tx/0x80187b807369776544934c20ee5abbcbbc646fa540e252c10139d11215b5f099 (2.8M DEI Deposit)

https://ftmscan.com/tx/0x26aa30154f0d63254cdec6dc84cce531522d54f6c02f5ee9bf51eee2e26a0fcb (2M DEI Deposit)

https://ftmscan.com/tx/0xe1ed86ba2e2d776069c82a14494b18c1cda3161fd0e03a1c553f13047c7b7e8a (2M DEI Deposit)

You get the picture. Suddenly there is 18M in DEI on Scream. What do they do next? The depositors make a MAX borrow on real stablecoins. DAI, USDT, USDC. Using their DEI as collateral. You're thinking, they're just exploiting the platform right? They're using their shitcoin to withdraw all the stables and run away with the money.

No. Not quite. Instead, they use those stablecoins to BUY MORE DEI.

https://ftmscan.com/token/0x68c102aba11f5e086c999d99620c78f5bc30ecd8#balances

There are really just 3 wallets with significant amounts of DEI. No one actually gives a shit about this coin. No one except the DEI team, that is. You'll see all of these whale DEI addresses do the exact same thing.

Deposit DEI. Borrow Stables. Swap stables for DEI through this LP: https://beets.fi/#/pool/0xdfc65c1f15ad3507754ef0fd4ba67060c108db7e000000000000000000000406

Some examples:

https://ftmscan.com/tx/0xc18f65d92c831d497981f7e8ccbd9f363ecf59ca4c6fadbea6a9b81ea11c15f8

https://ftmscan.com/tx/0xc967b1d6a666d6b0fc391ab74927ebe6ffe140e1b3565f0f56da0d67009ab35b

https://ftmscan.com/tx/0xdecc6eb91d37bda28159805a3ce33c60adadd6555753e5d0ebdcc8db1750f5fe

Take my word for it. 99.9%+ of the DEI on Scream was used in this exact same way on May 12. So fast forward to today. DEI is trading at around 60 cents. It's still pegged to $1 on Scream. The DEI cannot be liquidated, because there is no liquidity for DEI on the market. The BeethovenX pool used above has been closed. As of today, it holds about 26M worth of DEI and ~1M worth of USDC/DAI. So the liquidity has been completely drained.

DEI is dead. Even worse, DEI has pillaged Scream users' liquidity in an effort to save their peg at $1. Scream users' funds were used in a losing effort to save a stablecoin that has nothing to do with the Scream platform. Scream users have been defrauded by DEUS Finance. DEUS Finance owes Scream over $15M USD in stablecoins. So far this remains completely unpaid.

This is a major problem for DEFI in general. This is an example of how a platform can plunder user deposits to serve their own interests. Scream users' funds are now an IOU from a heavily indebted platform (DEUS).