Ex-Crypto Exec Claims DeFi Firm Locked Him Out of Lucrative Stablecoin Biz M^0

Max Glass, a former executive at crypto infrastructure and consulting firm RWA Company, has sued the company, claiming he was wrongfully terminated and forced to sign away his rights so the company could continue its stablecoin projects without him.

In doing so, the company committed an act of “fiduciary betrayal,” according to the complaint filed Monday in a lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court. The RWA company later developed a stablecoin business, which later became M^0.– a stablecoin infrastructure provider that has helped launch several multi-million dollar stablecoin projects, including MetaMask’s mUSD.

“This resulted from a scheme of coercion, fraudulent inducement and subsequent breaches of fiduciary duty and contract by the controlling fiduciaries of RWA Company LLC, Gregory DiPrisco and Joseph Quintilian,” Glass claims in the lawsuit, referring to the company’s two other executives. “DiPrisco and Quintilian violated their duties of loyalty and candor to usurp a valuable business opportunity – a new stablecoin product – developed with the company’s key partner, CrossLend GmbH.”

CrossLend is a German fintech startup that digitizes and standardizes lending data. It’s not a crypto startup, but its technology provides a bridge for on-chain protocols to consume mortgage and debt data. According to the complaint, RWA worked with CrossLend to develop an idea for a stablecoin project, but then diverted those efforts to form a new entity that was later renamed M^0.

In doing so, Glass claims to have been wrongly excluded from the stablecoin sector. “The M^0 business was not simply inspired by the RWA Co.-CrossLend relationship; it was built upon it,” Glass said in the complaint.

Glass also alleges a “pattern of cover-ups” by RWA, over the course of several years, that obscured the precise relationship between the company, its founders and M^0. He says his inquiries about whether the companies had merged went unanswered.

M^0 did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.

M^0 has a long list of investors, including Wintermute Ventures, ParaFi, HackVC, Anthony Scaramucci’s Salt, Galaxy, Polychain and Bain Capital. The company was one of the vendors that helped launch the Ethereum MetaMask wallet’s native stablecoin, MetaMask USD, or mUSD, in August.

MetaMask Unveils mUSD Stablecoin on Ethereum and Linea, Teases Debit Card Functionality

Under the hood, mUSD uses Bridge, the stablecoin arm of Stripe, to handle issuance, licensing, and reserve management. M^0 is part of the Bridge technology stack and is used to support minting and interoperability features for mUSD.

Glass said he was responsible for writing the Maker enhancement proposal that led Huntingdon Valley Bank to secure a $100 million stablecoin loan through MakerDAO, a major player in the DeFi space and the issuer of the stablecoin USDS, formerly known as DAI.

Glass is seeking punitive damages from the defendants, as well as reversal of his termination, restitution of all earnings resulting from “wrongful conduct” and an injunction that would prevent the defendants “from sell, transfer, distribute or otherwise encumber their interests in the M^0 business.”