Andre Cronje: Multichain Collapse Is a "Major Setback" for Fantom
Fantom is witnessing a significant decline in Total Value Locked (TVL) following the abrupt cessation of operations by its key partner Multichain.
Andre Cronje: Multichain Collapse Is a "Major Setback" for Fantom
Andre Cronje, co-founder of Fantom, has described the recent failure of the cross-chain platform Multichain as a "major setback" for the ecosystem, which has seen a sharp decline in activity over the past few weeks.
According to data from DefiLlama, Fantom's Total Value Locked (TVL) has decreased from over $364 million in early May to approximately $67.7 million at the time of writing. During the peak in 2022, Fantom's TVL reached $7.5 billion.
Fantom's TVL on July 17, 2023. Source: DefiLlama
Additionally, Andre mentioned that Fantom is actively seeking to recover funds frozen by Circle and Tether during the period when Multichain's assets showed signs of being moved out, including $63 million USDC and $2.5 million USDT.
"We are exploring all options at this time, working with relevant organizations to attempt to recover these assets."
Read more: Fantom Andre Cronje
The Multichain downturn has also had a cascading effect, leading to Geist Finance, a lending project on the Fantom network, permanently closing down. At the time, Geist held assets worth $29 million running on the Fantom network, significantly impacting Fantom as a consequence.
In addition to Fantom, other chains affected by the incident include Moonriver, Dogechain, Arbitrum, BNB Chain, Cronos, Avalanche, and Polygon.
As reported by Coin68, the Multichain team officially announced its closure on July 14 and confirmed CEO Zhaojun's detention by Chinese authorities. The project stated that all operational funds and user assets are under Zhaojun's control and are now subject to Chinese law enforcement.
