All the lowdown on the FUD around FTM, YFI after Cronje’s exit

In the crypto industry, where personalities reign supreme, hirings and firings are a huge deal. As of press time, several crypto and DeFi communities were dealt a shocking blow when two major players announced that they were stepping out of the game – possibly for good.

Sing, my angel of DeFi!

The Fantom, Yearn, and Solidly communities – amongst others – were left in the lurch when Andre Cronje, technical advisor at the Fantom Foundation, and Anton Nell, senior solutions architect at the Fantom Foundation, announced their departure from crypto via Nell’s Twitter account.

Nell also declared that about 25 “apps and services” would be terminated on 3 April 2022. Understandably, this triggered a panic storm.

Were there signs of this before? Well, in late January 2022, Cronje penned an open letter of sorts where he expressed his frustration with rich quick schemes in crypto, and said he was struggling to follow his vision while building. Furthermore, he had earlier deleted his Twitter account and updated his LinkedIn profile.

Users expressed a wide variety of emotions, ranging from betrayal to distress as they tried to make sense of what would happen next.

Exit, pursued by bears

The Fantom Foundation was quick to release a statement, reminding frightened investors that despite Cronje’s exit, more than 40 people were still working on projects.

However, some numbers speak for themselves. Yearn Finance’s YFI token sky-dived by 10.04% in the last 24 hours and was bleeding out at $18,028.28 during press time. Meanwhile, Fantom’s FTM collapsed by 15.29% to reach a price of $1.42.

Overall, it looks as if FUD did hit the communities hard. There were even claims that Cronje and Nell were rug pulling the communities, which could have fueled panic selling.

On the other hand, when looking at data from Santiment, weighted sentiment hadn’t shifted much. It’s possible this could be a matter of time, but weighted sentiment for Fantom appears to be a combination of mild negativity coupled with euphoric spikes.

Source: Santiment

In fact, some who still believe in the project may even see this as an opportunity to buy the dip. Santiment data showed that as the price dipped, there was a tall spike in the number of active addresses, with more than 200 recorded at press time.

However, this could also be due to investors scrambling to get out.

Source: Santiment

However, it was too soon to judge exchange inflows and outflows for the asset.