Developer Andre Cronje retires, tossing thousands of tokens

Hundreds of tokens are dropping in value with news that prolific developer Andre Cronje is quitting - including those with only tenuous ties to the DeFi maven.

It was announced on Sunday by Nell, Cronje's frequent collaborator, that they would "close the chapter" on developing decentralized finance.

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Last week, there was speculation that such an announcement was imminent after Cronje deleted his Twitter account and updated his LinkedIn to reflect that he no longer served as an advisor to the Fantom Foundation. In spite of warning signs, the market has reacted violently.

Recent release Solidly, an AMM with hybrid automation, has plummeted as much as 75% on the day. Likewise, automation platform Keep3r is likewise down 25%, and lending platform Iron Bank is down

Detail Expansion 

Moreover, Cronje's effect has even extended to projects that only have tenuous connections to it.

In the past, Cronje has publicly stated that he had not been involved in the operations of Yearn Finance, a yield vault protocol he turned over to a DAO with a now-mythical "fair launch" in July 2020. However, YFI fell as much as 12%, and is down 7.5% at the time of writing.

Likewise, the values of many Fantom tokens are significantly lower today. Spookyswap (BOO) is down 19%, LiquidDriver (LQDR) 17%, Tomb 22% (TOMB), and Geist Finance (GEIST) 15%, despite the fact that Cronje was not known to be significantly involved in any of their development. 50% – all founded by Cronje.

Long term impacts 

Throughout his career, Cronje has had a strained relationship with DeFi. He has written extensively about speculators on his blog, and he has often railed against the psychological risks of building; he has been hacked for millions of dollars due to his protocols; he has taken months-long sabbaticals from the space in the past.

In spite of this, Nell stressed that the latest exit was not a “knee-jerk” option, and that it was indeed final.

In practical terms, however, it has been noted that Cronje's exit will not affect the operation of many of the protocols he was involved with.

Even though Nell noted that many websites will be shut down in connection with the pair's decision to step down, these sites were merely front-end for autonomous contracts Cronje began months or even years ago.

As a matter of fact, in the hours following the announcement, teams have already announced the launch of new front-end for interacting with these contracts, including one that replaces Cronje's bribe.crv.finance.

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