The developers of Aragon, a cryptocurrency project that focuses on developing “unstoppable organizations” on the Ethereum network, has said that it has always “supported the Ethereum community” and the platform’s ongoing development.

Strategizing During Bear Markets

Aragon’s team, which manages a platform that allows users to “organize and collaborate without borders or intermediaries” by launching globally accessible, “bureaucracy-free” organizations and businesses, told its Twitter followers:

The Aragon project has always been supporting Ethereum and its community. Our token sale was done in ETH, and we haven't dumped any ETH (besides minor hedges to other cryptos, <5%) or lost faith in it.

The direct message from the Aragon Association’s (AA) board members, Luis Iván Cuende (the co-founder of the Aragon project) and Jorge Izquierdo (the CEO at Aragon One, the for-profit firm focusing on the development of Aragon), further noted: 

When the Aragon token sale happened, we raised $25m and ETH was at $90. Fortunately, the Aragon Association has made good bets in other cryptocurrencies, and even after a year and a half of operations, the Aragon Association now has a portfolio worth more than $30m

Selling XMR, $1 million in Ether

The AA also revealed that it had sold (in the past 24 hours) its Monero (XMR) holdings, which are reportedly valued at over $500,000. The association has liquidated part of its Ether (ETH) position as well – worth about $1 million.

Moreover, the Aragon association members recently took out a 1 million DAI loan, “collateralizing the CDP (certification of deposit) with 40,000 ETH (415.9% collateralization ratio)”.

Going on to give an explanation as to why they have conducted these recent transactions, the AA’s team noted: 

These are hard moments for the market, but even with that, we want to make sure the Aragon project can properly operate for the foreseeable years without having to worry about the market.

A “Time-Sensitive” Intervention

Because of the increasing levels of volatility in the cryptoasset market, the AA board members decided to use their “discretionary power” to conduct these particular trades (at this time). During periods when a “time-sensitive intervention” is not required, the association “will always try to follow the AGP (Aragon Governance Proposal) process, Aragon’s tweet thread noted.

In response to Aragon’s announcement, Joe Weisenthal, an Editor at Bloomberg’s business news, remarked: 

Wait, ICOs were raising money in Ether, and instead of using that funding to build out the project or convert to fiat they were making “good bets in other cryptocurrencies”

Diversification Of Assets, Business Ethics

Replying to Weisenthal’s tweet, Luis Iván Cuende said: 

We have both built what we promised (actually, waaay more than promised), converted to fiat when possible (when legal gave us clearance) and also placed bets on decentralized protocols that will become the backbone of the new Internet. What's the issue?

Meanwhile, Malthus John, the founder of LegalBlock, a decentralized legal community, had an insightful comment to add:

Not to mention that it is prudent to diversify. Teams that didn't do this are worse off. Diversification means having some fiat too. The main thing most pundits miss is that there's no debt in these new models, and they can and will sustain at a completely new level.