DeFi Pioneer Andre Cronje Leaves Industry, Associated Projects Crash

Rumors of their departures have sent tabs on projects associated with them crashing amid fears of a rug pull. Partner of Cronje, Anton Nell Announced via Twitter:

“Andre and I have decided that we are closing the chapter on contributing to the defi/crypto space. There are about ~25 apps and services that we will be canceling on April 3, 2022.”

In the thread, he stated that they both decided to stop contributing to the DeFi space and end their relationship with 25 apps and services. Among them are Yearn Finance, Keep3r network, Chainlist, Solidly and Multichain.

According to Nell:

“Unlike the previous ‘build in defi sucks’, this is not a knee jerk reaction to the hate received for launching a project, but a decision that has been coming for a while now.”

Plummeting value of connected projects

The news has led to the tokens associated with these projects losing a significant percentage of value. Although some have recovered slightly, all are still in the red.

The Fantom Network, where Anton Nell served as a Senior Solutions Architect for the Fantom Foundation, saw a nearly 13% drop in the value of its FTM token in the past 24 hours, according to data from CryptoSlate.

Within the same period, Yearn. Finance (YFI) fell 6%, Solidly (SOLID) dropped 67%, Multichain (MULTI) lost almost 14%, and Chainlist fell 4.3%. All of this shows how influential Cronje is in the industry. But it also showed how miscommunication could ruin projects in the DeFicontributing space.

Fantom Foundation Senior Solutions Architect Anton Nell said that he and Andre Cronje will close the chapter on contributing to the defi/crypto space. There are about 25 apps and services that will end on April 3, 2022. https://t.co/uM1yeDv01i

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) March 6, 2022

Andre Cronje’s initial response to the matter on the Keep3r telegram group made it seem like the projects were shutting down. But, in reality, he was giving himself away to other teams. Fear of a rug pull led to sell-offs by several headlines. As many rushed to withdraw their funds, Fantom Network GAS jumped as high as 10,000 gwei.

However, the team behind the projects has tried to clear things up. According to the Fantom Foundation, Cronje’s departure does not affect the project as “Fantom is not and never was a one-man team. There are more than 40 people working at Fantom.”

We are extremely grateful to Andre for everything he has done for cryptocurrencies as a whole.

However, Fantom is not and never was a one-man team.

There are more than 40 people working at Fantom.

— Fantom Foundation (@FantomFDN) March 6, 2022

He added that “Fantom’s development will not be affected by Andre’s decision. Great things are coming, as planned.”

Banteg from Yearn Finance too he tweeted:

“People burying YFI, do you realize Andre hasn’t worked on it for over a year? And even if he did, there are 50 full-time people and 140 part-time collaborators to support things.”

This won’t be the first time Andre Cronje has resigned. He has been considering quitting since 2020. Only time will tell if he will return.