DeFi Legends Anton Nell, Andre Cronje Leave The Crypto Space Completely

DeFi superstar developers Andre Cronje and Anton Nell are leaving the crypto space for good. The duo did not reveal the reasons behind their drastic move but those in the loop suspect that it’s because of the “toxic” DeFi community. In effect, the tokens directly associated with the prolific developers took a hit.

Let’s review why this is such a big deal for the crypto market in general. Cronje is the architect behind DeFi giant Yearn. Launched in 2020, the project ignited that year’s DeFi summer, so the talented developer is a rockstar in the crypto space. Meanwhile, Nell is Cronje’s colleague and former senior solutions architect for the Fantom Foundation.

What triggered Andre Cronje and Anton Nell’s drastic move?

In 2020, Cronje told Decrypt he was on the edge of quitting crypto, citing a “toxic” DeFi community as his primary reason. Those comments came five months after Cronje’s departure from Yearn, known as iEarn Finance at the time. Despite being a reluctant leader, the prolific developer pushed through and said that this 2022 he wants Yearn to become the “SAP of yield.”

So what changed?

Speaking for the two of them, Nell tweeted that “unlike previous ‘building in DeFi sucks’ rage-quits, this is not a knee-jerk reaction to the hate received from releasing a project. Instead, it is a decision that has been coming for a while now.

So What’s Next?

Nell added that they are terminating 25 apps and services by 03 April 2022. The most notable ones are related to Yearn Finance, Keep3r Network, Multichain.xyz, smart contract protocol exchange Solidly, Chainlist and Bribe Crv Finance.

Take note that only the front-end services will end. The open-source code and smart contracts will allow others to fill the void left by Cronje. To illustrate, the protocol’s main entry point, Yearn.Finance is running smoothly, business as usual. A leading developer for Yearn who goes by the name Banteg quickly pointed out that Cronje has not contributed to the project for “over a year.”

The value of the tokens and projects directly linked to Cronje tumbled after the announcement. For example, the token associated with the recently released Solidly, a hybrid automated market maker (AMM), was down by 75% on the day of the announcement. Similarly, the automation platform Keep3r’s token was down 25%, while the lending platform Iron Bank slid down by 50%. Cronje founded all of these protocols.

It is still too early to tell what will be the effect of the tandem’s complete exit from the DeFi space. This is quite tricky because DeFi systems offer financial applications that use blockchains such as Ethereum for banking services. So transparency and vote of confidence are huge factors.