Andre Cronje, one of the iconic developers of the DeFi ecosystem, has announced that he is retiring from cryptocurrencies. The news, made official this Sunday by Anton Nell, with whom he worked at the Fantom Foundation (FTM), caused a sharp drop on various assets of the network of the same name.
Andre Cronje bows out of cryptocurrencies
Developer Andre Cronje, whose credits include founding Yearn Finance, is ending his involvement in decentralized finance (DeFi) and cryptocurrencies. The news came this Sunday morning from Anton Nell, one of his colleagues at the Fantom Foundation (FTM), who also announced his departure.
Andre and I have decided that we are closing the chapter of contibuting to the defi/crypto space.
There are around ~25 apps and services that we are terminating on 03 April 2022.
1/3– Anton Nell (@AntonNellCrypto) March 6, 2022
No reason has yet been given, except that Anton Nell speaks of a well-considered choice. He says it has nothing to do with “DeFi sucks”, a nod to Andre Cronje’s several outbursts about the mentality in the sector.
Indeed, he has repeatedly criticised users of DeFi applications for being unconstructive and insulting, being here only for the returns without really caring about the protocols.
However, we don’t know if this is one of the reasons that pushed the developer to leave. In addition to the pressure of the community on social networks, developing in DeFi is also a major source of mental load, which can motivate a person to want to step back.
The impact of the news on the ecosystem
Following Andre Cronje’s announcement, the impact on Fantom ecosystem asset prices was immediate. Yearn Finance’s YFI, for example, suffered a loss of almost 14% from $19,800 to $17,400, before recovering during the day.
FTM also suffered similar losses. But the most notable fall was in SOLID, the Solidly protocol token, the developer’s latest creation. Indeed, the asset’s price, which was trading at $2.34 at the time of the announcement, hit a low of $0.80.
Still, the disaster of Andre Cronje’s departure from the DeFi ecosystem is to be put into perspective for the protocols already in place. We don’t take any credit for the important work he did, but Yearn Finance, for example, is run by a team of 50 full-time and 140 part-time staff. While its founder has not worked there for over a year.
The future of the Fantom ecosystem
The Solidly interface will be provided by the Solidex project, and whether it’s for the smart-contracts in this protocol, or the others, it’s important to remember that they remain operational on the network, and are open source to boot. This means that they can continue to function even without their creator.
The Fantom Foundation did not fail to acknowledge and thank the work of this man throughout their collaboration. Of course, they also emphasised the idea that not everything rests in the hands of one person and that this will not impact the future of the ecosystem.
We’re extremely grateful to Andre for all he did for crypto as a whole.
However, Fantom isn’t and never was a one man team.
There are 40+ people working at Fantom.
– Fantom Foundation (@FantomFDN) March 6, 2022
Indirectly, this news highlights the role that decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) can play in the DeFi environment. Indeed, at the beginning of the life of a protocol, it will need its founder or a team, but then this point of centralisation becomes optional.
The project can then stand on its own two feet, either through its community via a DAO or, as in the case of the more traditional industry, because the company at the head of it has grown sufficiently
