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Yearn Finance Founder Andre Cronje Allegedly to Stop Contributing to DeFi

Andre Cronje, the renowned blockchain developer who came to the limelight with Yearn.finance, is allegedly going to stop contributing to Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and cryptocurrencies in general.

Anton Nell made the revelation a Fantom Foundation developer who took to Twitter to announce himself and Cronje have decided to stop contributing to DeFi and the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. While the news has not yet been verified on the part of Andre Cronje, Anton said as many as 25 applications would be closed down from April 3.

Amongst the applications singled out by Anton includes YearnFi, the Keep3r Network, and the recently launched Solidly Exchange that is built on the Fantom network.

“Andre and I have decided that we are closing the chapter of contributing to the Defi or crypto space. There are around ~25 apps and services that we are terminating on April 03 2022,” Anton’s tweet reads, “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.”

Following the news, the affected tokens under the Fantom blockchain have started plunging, with the Total Value Locked (TVL) of projects billed to be affected plunging considerably. At the time of writing, the FTM coin was down 3.25% to $1.36, atop a 19% plunge in the past week.

This is not the first time that rumours about Andre Cronje’s exit from the DeFi ecosystem have made the rounds, with many of these insinuations turning out to be wrong. While the developer allegedly was billed to quit the space last year, he has found some notable protocols in the past year, including the Solidly trading platform. As a result, only time will tell how legitimate this proposed exit will be.

Orbs and Fantom Integrate to Push the Boundaries of Web3

The bridge between the major blockchain networks has set its sights on one of the new contenders to join the race for Web3, Fantom.

Ghost may be new, but it offers the best that proof-of-stake (POS) chains have to offer. Scalable, fast, and affordable, focusing primarily on hosting applications for DeFi.

Orb, a Layer 3 chain, which supports Layer 1 and 2 capabilities, making smart contracts capable of performing more sophisticated activities, has now been integrated with Fantom.

This follows integrations with Layer 1 chains, including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Solana, Avalanche, and Harmony.

Fantom itself is an EVM-compatible chain, which means that applications hosted on your network can see the value transferred across the entire EVM chain ecosystem. It currently hosts more than 100 Dapps and ranks fourth on the TVL network to parade with more than $12 billion blocked.

The three largest Dapps hosted on Fantom include SpookySwap, Geist Finance, and Scream, which boast $1 billion in TVL.

The token at the heart of the Fantom network, the FTM, shows strong gains in the last year.

In addition, other projects are expanding at Fantom to improve its multi-chain operability. These include popular projects like Multichain, Curve, and Beefy Binance.

The spheres themselves are growing rapidly. In the wake of its latest update, as it now offers multi-chain betting on both Ethereum and Polygon, as well as more Tier 3 applications based on its protocol, including the on-chain activity alert notification tool via l’Open DeFi Notification Protocol and the Revault Network, intelligent deposit aggregator, it collects data from hundreds of deposits and automatically optimizes investor holdings across all deposits.

The integration between Orbs and Fantom sets the stage for more Fantom-based DeFi applications to improve their protocols with Orbs L3 functionality.

Web3 Data Ecosystem Pocket Network Adds Support for the Fantom Blockchain

The Web3 blockchain data ecosystem Pocket Network adds support for the Fantom blockchain, allowing developers to mint Fantom RPC endpoints for their applications directly from Pocket Portal, earning $POKT tokens.

Remote Procedure Call is a software communication protocol that one program can use to request a service from a program located on another computer on a network without having to understand the network’s details. RPC is used to call other processes on the remote systems like a local system.

Pocket Network is a blockchain data platform built for applications that use cost-efficient economics to coordinate and distribute data at scale, enabling seamless interactions between blockchains and applications.

Fantom is a highly scalable blockchain platform for DeFi, crypto dApps, and enterprise applications.

Michael Kong, CEO of the Fantom Foundation, said that:

“Having Pocket Network’s decentralized RPC on Fantom brings us one step closer to a future built on censorship-resistant and decentralized infrastructure.”

Pocket provides RPC access to Ethereum, Polygon, and a dozen more blockchain networks. Its native blockchain protocol, cryptocurrency $POKT (a utility token), provides the second layer of full node incentives.

Unstoppable Domains Partners with Fantom to Make Crypto Transactions Easier

To eliminate the pain points associated with cryptos like misunderstanding, trepidation, and fear, Unstoppable Domains has collaborated with Fantom to make transactions simpler and easier.

Fantom, a layer-1 blockchain platform, expects the strategic partnership to trigger a frictionless and unified crypto ecosystem. Per the announcement:

“Unstoppable Domains will support the Fantom network, and allow Fantom’s more than 3.5 million users to benefit from the simplified movement of digital assets via human-readable wallet addresses.”

Unstoppable Domains is a top platform for Web3 digital identity whose NFT domains act as a payment hub comprising human-readable addresses.

Through the partnership, the Fantom network will benefit from simplified crypto transactions, user verification, and identity ownership.

Michael Kong, Fantom CEO, noted:

“Unstoppable Domains has been at the forefront of decentralized domains for years, and is a pioneer in the Web3 space. We are thrilled to work alongside Unstoppable Domains to bring these domain names to the Fantom Network, and to further simplify the movement of digital assets for our users.”

On his part, Sandy Carter, SVP and channel chief of Unstoppable Domains stated:

“The number of use cases for NFT domains continues to grow. We are excited to work with Fantom Foundation to help improve crypto payments, and bolster the wider Web3 landscape.”

The Fantom network recently incorporated automatic audits into decentralized applications (dApps).

Meanwhile, Unstoppable Domains recently introduced an easier way for users to purchase cryptocurrencies on MoonPay, Blockchain.News reported.

The partnership between MoonPay and Unstoppable Domains is intended to resolve the loss of crypto funds once sent to the wrong addresses because it is nearly impossible to recover. Furthermore, the collaboration also intended to make the onboarding of mass users into the Web3.0 space more realistic.

Fantom Collaborates With Dedaub To Automatically Detect Smart Contract Bugs With Watchdog

In the latest announcement from the scalable layer 1 platform, Fantom announced its collaboration with Dedaub to leverage its automated system called Watchdog to look for smart contract bugs in the Fantom ecosystem.

Watchdog is an automated system developed due to Fantom’s partnership with security firm Dedaub. Using an automated, continuous auditing system, Watchdog can automatically analyze selected smart contracts from the Fantom Network for buggy code that could become the root cause of security attacks.

According to Fantom foundation in the announcement, Watchdog will particularly focus on attacks afflicting decentralized finance (DeFi) apps.

“We’re incredibly excited to bring a new level of safety and security to the ecosystem with Watchdog. Developers require access to cost-effective, efficient, and trustworthy smart contract auditing tools. Watchdog delivers just that and will set a new standard for security,” said Michael Kong, chief executive officer at Fantom Foundation.

Furthermore, Fantom stated in the announcement that if a vulnerability is detected in any of the Fantom ecosystem, security firm Dedaub will alert the project, and assist them in analyzing the risks involved and support the project team in fixing the vulnerability in time.

The scalable layer 1 platform added that although new threats can arise as protocols evolve, making a completed audit outdated. As a result, Watchdog supplements manual audits with automated vulnerability detection services that are continuously updated to address newly discovered exploits.

Speaking of partnerships, web3 domain provider Unstoppable Domains recently partnered with Fantom network to allow Fantom users to benefit from simplified crypto transactions, user verification, and identity ownership.

Fantom CEO Michael Kong noted: “Unstoppable Domains has been at the forefront of decentralized domains for years, and is a pioneer in the Web3 space. We are thrilled to work alongside Unstoppable Domains to bring these domain names to the Fantom Network, and to further simplify the movement of digital assets for our users.”

Fantom Price Surges 20% amid Andre Cronje's Unexpected Comeback

Fantom (FTM) price has seen a bullish trend, which is worth analyzing. At the time of writing, Fantom’s price was trading at $0.261536 with a 24-hour trading volume of $407,044,934, as per CoinMarketCap. Data shows that the token was up 20.28% in the last 24 hours and ranked #67, with a live market cap of $665,610,896.

Based on the below chart analysis, Fantom crossed the $3 threshold twice in 2021 while trading at $0.2-$0.4 at the beginning of the year.

During that year, FTM recorded a 10x growth, setting two all-time highs at almost the same level in a span of 12 months. The first highs were witnessed at the time of the overall market growth in February and May. The second highs were seen in September 2021 and January 2022, when Fantom was worth $3.16 and $3.3, respectively, when the crypto market recorded its peak growth.

Numerous developments contributed to the growth of Fantom’s value throughout 2021. In May last year, the Fantom Foundation supported a few native projects, such as SpiritSwap and SpookySwap, as part of the Fantom ecosystem.

Furthermore, several protocols, like Geist Finance, Scream, Reaper Farm, RoboVault, and others, appeared within the Fantom ecosystem during that year. Also, Fantom blockchain started partnering with multiple projects from different fields, such as Coti (Payment), Suterusu (Privacy), V-ID (Identity), Travala (Travel), and others.

Fantom’s price evolved and achieved its latest all-time high point in 2021; so far, the record has never been surpassed.

As it can be seen in the chart, since the early part of this year, the token experienced some significant challenges, which pointed to why it cooled its steam. On 10 March, Fantom announced the departure of one of its key developers, Andre Cronje, from the project as of the end of March 2022. Blockchain.News further reported the matter. As a result, the update caused the price of FTM to drop by over 20% over 24 hours and trade low.

Besides that, Fantom prices also have been trading low this year due to the wider crypto winter that started seriously at the end of April.

But for the last 30 days, Fantom’s price went up by 19.49%, 21.25% surged for the last seven days, and 24% up over the last 24 hours. Market report associates the latest bullishness with rumours that DeFi trailblazer Andre Cronje is returning to the industry. The total volume of assets locked in Fantom also rose 3.10% in the last 24 hours to $517.22 million, thus reacting positively to the speculation.

Rumours about Cronje’s return started last week when he published a medium post talking about various matters that led to the recent market downturn. The DeFi developer also used that opportunity to call for more regulatory reforms within the sector.

However, the crypto community members were divided based on the post, with some arguing that the publishing was not from Cronje. But early yesterday, Cronje updated his LinkedIn profile to read that he is the Vice President of Memes at the Fantom Foundation, and stated he started the position this month. He also shared a tweet via his verified Twitter account that showed he was back in the industry. All these confirm the speculation that Cronje has finally returned.

Cronje is widely regarded as the father of DeFi for his various contributions to the space. He is credited with developing several projects such as Yearn Finance, Keep3rV1, PowerPool, SushiSwap, PowerPool, CreamV2, and many more. He was Chairman of the Fantom Foundation and served as the project’s technical advisor.

TrueUSD's TUSD Circulating Supply Surpasses $3 Billion Despite Prime Trust's Challenges

In June 2023, TrueUSD (TUSD) experienced significant growth and adoption across multiple blockchain ecosystems. With the circulating supply reaching 3,059,838,623 TUSD, backed by dollar reserves of over $3 billion, the stablecoin is gaining more recognition in the crypto markets.

TUSD showed a broad spread across various networks with TRON taking the lead with 2,297,017,674 TUSD, Ethereum trailing behind at 729,591,343 TUSD, and BNB Smart Chain (Native) hosting 30,097,865 TUSD. Avalanche, BNB Beacon Chain, Fantom, Polygon, and several other networks also supported a sizeable amount of TUSD.

TrueUSD’s growing adoption was further evidenced by its integration into different platforms and protocols throughout the month. The Web3 shopping platform, UQUID, adopted TUSD as a payment option on June 5th, providing users with a new method to shop. TUSD was also incorporated into the Megaton Finance on the TON network, broadening its presence in the financial sector.

Binance, the world-renowned crypto exchange, played a significant role in promoting TUSD adoption during June. It initiated a TUSD contract swap on the BNB Smart Chain, and upon its successful completion, launched the 34th phase of new token mining, supporting TUSD mining. Binance’s Auto-Invest platform added TUSD as a payment option, and it supported the swapping of the new native TUSD on the BSC network for TUSDOLD, offering users a seamless conversion process.

Venus recognized the rising importance of TUSD by launching the VIP-129 proposal to support the new native TUSD, and following its approval, the market for the token went live. Additionally, Pancake V3 introduced the TUSD Syrup Pool and Farms, providing users with more opportunities to earn rewards.

TrueUSD’s reach extended to Kraken, another major crypto exchange, which enabled deposits and withdrawals of TUSD on the TRON network by the end of June. Binance further cemented TUSD’s position by launching a zero maker fee promotion for all existing TUSD spot and margin trading pairs and added BCH/TUSD and CFX/TUSD trading pairs to its platform.

Alongside these product developments, TrueUSD made strides in community engagement through various campaigns. Binance C2C and Binance Earn launched time-limited campaigns, offering new users a chance to win up to 175 TUSD. The UquidParty online campaign and PancakeSwap’s TUSDQuiz on Telegram created interactive opportunities for participants to win a share of TUSD prizes.

It’s worth pointing out that, despite TrueUSD’s claim to have launched as the “first USD stablecoin operated by a regulated operator,” it might face certain challenges. TrueUSD’s technology partner, Prime Trust, has been grappling with serious issues. Rumors of insolvency swirled around Prime Trust in early June. This situation escalated on June 22 when the Department of Business and Industry in Nevada issued a cease and desist order against the company. Consequently, Prime Trust abruptly put a stop to all fiat and cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals.

Nevertheless, TrueUSD denied any impact from the Prime Trust situation. In a recent tweet, the company asserted, ‘Prime Trust has suspended all deposits of fiat and digital assets. However, #TrueUSD (#TUSD) is not affected by this development. We don’t have any exposure to Prime Trust and maintain multiple USD rails for minting and redemption. Rest assured, all your funds with TUSD remain secure.’

Multichain Reports Unusual Outflows Worth Over $100M

In the past 12 hours, a large amount of assets has unusually flowed out from Multichain. These assets, which include a variety of cryptocurrencies, have been transferred to the new address: 0x1eed63efba5f81d95bfe37d82c8e736b974f477b. At the time of writing, the net worth of all assets transferred is $102,834,504.

The assets that have flowed out are approximately as follows:

From Fantom: 11.91 million DAI, 13,146 ETH, 10.1 million USDC, 64 million USDT, 52 BTC
From Arbitrum: 2,891 WETH, 8.7 million USDC, 7.5 WBTC
From BNB Chain: 209k USDC, 50.8 BTCB
From Avalanche: 2.38 million DAI, 33.76 WBTC.e
From Cronos: 667.4 WETH, 9 million USDC, 616k DAI
From Polygon: 19.95k USDC, 5,582 WETH, 7.05 WBTC
From Moonbeam: 237.6k USDC
From Optimism: 37k USC, 21.91 WBTC, 10.36 million DAI
From Ethereum: 15k DAI

On July 7th, the Multichain team announced via Twitter that the assets locked up on the Multichain MPC address had been moved abnormally to an unknown address. The team was unsure of the cause and began an investigation. They recommended that all users suspend the use of Multichain services and revoke all contract approvals related to Multichain. They also announced that the Multichain service had been stopped, and all bridge transactions would be stuck on the source chains. They did not provide a confirmed time for resuming the service and advised users not to use the Multichain bridging service.

On July 8th, Circle and Tether, two major stablecoin issuers, froze over $65 million in assets that had been transferred from Multichain. This amount represented about half of the assets that were abnormally moved.

Messari: Fantom FTM Market Cap Declined 36% in Q2 2023

According to a report released by Messari, Fantom faced a decline in daily active addresses by 18% QoQ, while new unique addresses grew by 146% QoQ, coinciding with increased activity on LayerZero and Galxe. Daily transactions decreased by 24.4% QoQ.

The market cap declined 36% QoQ after the SEC took regulatory actions against Coinbase and Binance.US. Total Value Locked (TVL) in USD dropped 46% QoQ, and revenue in FTM increased by 35% (+22% in USD terms), while network value decreased by 36.1% QoQ.

Proposal 34 was passed to reduce the minimum stake required to validate from 500,000 FTM to 50,000 FTM, aiming to increase staking participation and decentralization. Active validators were 61, with a total staked of 1.3 billion FTM (~$400 million).

Several ecosystem growth initiatives were established, including the Ecosystem Vault, which amassed ~530,000 FTM by Q2 2023, and the Gas Monetization Program, launched in beta in Q2 2023, with over a dozen applications joining.

In the DeFi space, there was a significant decline in TVL due to concerns about Multichain in May. NFT secondary sales volume increased by 26% QoQ. Gaming is in its early stages, with several developer tools rolled out. Galxe emerged as a leading social application, growing its quarterly total of UAWs from 966,000 in Q1 to 3.4 million (+255%) QoQ.

Development activity saw unique smart contracts grow by 155% QoQ. Full-time developers decreased from 25 to 21 QoQ, while part-time developers increased from 44 to 56 QoQ.

Looking ahead, Fantom plans to introduce a new StateDB storage system, Fantom Virtual Machine (FVM), and account abstraction. These technological advancements are part of Fantom’s commitment to remain competitive through continuous building and expansion.

Fantom’s mixed Q2 2023, with growth in new unique addresses but a decline in daily active addresses and market cap, reflects strategic responses to regulatory actions and concerns about Multichain. With wide-reaching plans, including significant network upgrades and growth strategies, Fantom is positioning itself for a robust future in the crypto space.

Balancer's $2.1M Breach Impacts Pools Across Ethereum, Fantom, and Optimism

Blockchain security firm PeckShield Inc. has reported a significant discrepancy in the initial loss estimates related to the Balancer ($BAL) platform. According to a recent tweet by PeckShield, the loss, which also involves Beethoven X, is now believed to be greater than $2.1 million. This affects multiple pools across platforms such as Ethereum, Fantom Foundation, and Optimism Foundation.

The Balancer team had previously alerted its community to withdraw liquidity from the affected vaults. Their initial estimate suggested that “only 0.08% of total TVL ($565,199) remains at risk.” However, PeckShield’s analysis indicates that this figure might have been “seriously mis-calculated.”

In a related post dated August 27, Balancer acknowledged an exploit linked to a specific vulnerability. While they have implemented mitigation procedures to minimize risks, they were unable to pause the affected pools. As a preventive measure, Balancer urged users to withdraw from the impacted liquidity pools.

The current location of the stolen funds amounting to $2.1 million is yet to be ascertained.

For those unfamiliar, PeckShield Inc. is a renowned blockchain security and data analytics company, while Balancer is a platform that allows users to create or add liquidity to customizable pools and earn trading fees.