Prominent DeFi Developer Calls It Quits, Causing Corrections In Some Altcoins

DeFi pioneers ​​Andre Cronje and Anton Nell have thrown in the towel on their work in the space, causing some uncertainty and corrections in a few altcoins.

Taking to Twitter for the surprising news, Nell, one of the key contributors to several DeFi projects, announced his and Cronje’s exit.

“Andre and I have decided that we are closing the chapter of contributing to the defi/crypto space,” he said.

“There are around ~25 apps and services that we are terminating on 03 April 2022.”

Affected projects include Yearn Finance (YFI), Keeper Network (KEEP), the Solidly exchange, Curve Finance (CRV), Chainlist, and Multichain, as per Nell’s announcement.

“Unlike previous ‘building in defi sucks’ rage quits, this is not a knee jerk reaction to the hate received from releasing a project, but a decision that has been coming for a while now. Thank you to everyone that supported us over the past few years.”

YFI, KEEP, and CRV have all dipped on the news, though price action is still mostly in line with the movement of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Yearn Finance will continue to operate as it always had, but without the contributions from Cronje. His departure from Fantom is significant, but the project also took to Twitter to clarify that things will continue to be business as usual.

“The team effort is what allowed Fantom to become one of the most utilized and loved decentralized networks in world,” the Fantom Foundation said.

“Hundreds of developers build on Fantom daily and 100k+ unique address use Fantom every day. Contrary to some popular belief, Andre wasn't a core dev at Fantom.”

According to the project, Cronje “Was a big picture guy, working closely with CEO [Michael Kong], laying the groundwork especially during the tough times of 2018.”

“Therefore, the development of Fantom won't be impacted by Andre's decision. Big things are coming, as scheduled.”

Like YFI, FTM also took a short hit to its price following the news, but has held up just fine considering the overall market conditions.
As for Curve Finance, Cronje was integral to building of its bribe system, which bribes veCRV holders with token rewards in exchange for their governance votes.

An anonymous Twitter user who goes by Alunara addressed that situation by creating a mirrored website with the bribe system for when Cronje’s projects go offline.