Three Arrows-Backed Rook protocol sees surge in activity: ROOK price surge 14%

• Three Arrows Capital hedge fund filed for bankruptcy last year.
• Three Arrows Capital invested in the seed round for Rook in 2020.
• There are speculations that Zhu Su and Kyle Davies may have completed a $25 million fundraise.

Liquidity protocol Rook, which is backed by the bankrupt Three Arrow Capital (3AC) hedge fund, has experienced a surge in activity causing its native token, the ROOK, price to jump to a daily high of $16.38. At press time, ROOK was up 13.22% to trade at $15.33.

The surge in activity comes against the backdrop of speculations that Three Arrows founders have completed a $25 million fundraising to build “an exchange to trade bankruptcy claims.” This comes after DeFi researcher Ignas tweeted.

1/12 Kyle Davies reached out to me after this tweet.

The fundraising deal is done.

But they won’t disclose who are the investors – as most exchanges don’t.

He also explained how the exchange, collateral system & tokenomics works: 🧵 https://t.co/A43gKBMjz0

— Ignas | DeFi Research (@DefiIgnas) March 7, 2023

3AC relationship with Rook

In 2020, Three Arrows Capital invested in the seed round for KeeperDAO, which is what rebranded to Rook Protocol.

For those who don’t know Rook Protocol, it is a maximum extractable value (MEV) marketplace on Ethereum. Its main objective is to redistribute value that is often swept under the carpet by predatory trading platforms and miners. 3AC co-founder Zhu Su at the time when 3AC invested in KeeperDAO’s seed round said that the protocol could keep liquidation on Ethereum “efficient” while allowing participants to earn.

Data from Defillama shows Rook currently has about $5 million in total value locked (TVL) which is far below its 2021 high of $606 million, curtsey of the 2022 crypto winter caused by the many crypto firms collapses that started with the collapse of the $60 billion Terra (LUNA) ecosystem.