BarnBridge
Its elected legal counsel halted all work in a Discord message
A DAO-governed DeFi protocol that split lending yields into fixed-rate senior and variable junior tranches, sold as SMART Yield bonds.
- Capital raised (announced)
Recorded announced backing; this is separate from cash received, customer deposits and money recovered.
Funding
| Round | Date | Announced | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | 2020 |
Announced is what was said at the time. Cash actually received is rarely disclosed and is not assumed to match.
People
| Name | Role | Period | Now | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyler Ward | — | Building @sanctumai | Oct 2026 | |
| Troy Murray | — | Co-founder and CEO, Graviton (since January 2022) | Oct 2026 |
Timeline
October 2020
Yield farmers deposited stablecoins into the first pool to earn the BOND governance token, which had no public sale.
7 July 2023
One pool on Ethereum was left running at the time.
How it ended
Regulatory action
In July 2023 the DAO's elected legal counsel disclosed that the SEC was investigating BarnBridge DAO and people associated with it, and told contributors that all work on its products should stop, pools should be closed and further work would not be paid.
What happened next
- Regulatory action22 December 2023
The SEC announced settled cease-and-desist orders against BarnBridge DAO and its two founders over the unregistered offer and sale of SMART Yield bonds, which it said drew more than $509 million in deposits. The DAO agreed to disgorge nearly $1.5 million and each founder to pay a $125,000 civil penalty, without admitting or denying the findings.
Still alive
Open spot
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Sources
12 sources behind this page.
- 1BOND Token Slumps 10% as BarnBridge Faces SEC Investigation · CoinDesk · Jul 2023
- 2BarnBridge DAO Settles with SEC Over Unregistered Crypto Asset Offering · CoinGape · Dec 2023
- 3BarnBridge DAO agrees to settle $1.7M with the SEC for charges against it · CoinJournal · Dec 2023
- 4SEC Investigation Triggers Pause at DeFi Protocol BarnBridge · Crypto Briefing · Jul 2023
- 5Newfangled Ethereum DeFi coin surges 600% in 24 hours after listing · CryptoSlate · Oct 2020
- 6Sanctum AI Featured in VentureBeat for High-Impact Technology That Turns Cloud-Based AI Local · GlobeNewswire (Sanctum AI press release) · May 2024
- 7BarnBridge · IQ.wiki · user-editable
- 8LinkedIn profile of Troy Murray · LinkedIn (self-published profile, viewed by a person) · user-editable
- 9SEC Fines BarnBridge DAO Founders For Offering Unregistered Securities · The Defiant
- 10Tyler Scott Ward - Chief Executive Officer at Sanctum AI · The Org · user-editable
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- 11X account lookup: @LordTylerWard · twitterapi.io (X data provider)
- 12X search: @Barn_Bridge posts mentioning "Troy" · twitterapi.io (X data provider)
Every figure above is clickable and opens the sources behind it. Copies were stored when each source was read, so a citation still resolves after the page it came from is gone.