Eclipse crypto CEO to ‘reduce public role’ after sexual harassment allegations

• Neel Somani denied sexual harassment allegations levelled against him 
• Eclipse has also vowed to share background information on all senior leaders

Eclipse founder and CEO Neel Somani will temporarily limit his public-facing role at the Ethereum [ETH] scaling solution after sexual harassment allegations. Responding to the sexual misconduct allegations, Somani commented,

“So, I’ll be temporarily reducing my role as a public face for Eclipse. The senior leaders at Eclipse are well equipped to take on these responsibilities, and this will allow these conversations to unfold and the truth to emerge about these allegations.”

In a recent interview with The Block, Somani also clarified that he hasn’t stepped down as CEO. Instead, he will only limit exposure to podcasts and panels. 

Eclipse reacts to clear FUD

Eclipse is a customizable roll-up that leverages the Solana [SOL] Virtual Machine to drive scaling and development on top of Ethereum. However, Eclipse offers developers the option to choose the L1 blockchain they want to use as security.  

The firm raised over $65 million in Series A funding from notable venture capitalists (VCs), including Fenbushi Capital and Delphi Digital. So, the allegations against its CEO could strain VC relations and Eclipse in general. 

In fact, an executive at crypto-fund Dragon Capital mentioned that it didn’t invest in Eclipse after learning of Somani’s history of sexual harassment. The executive claimed that he discouraged some VCs from being part of Eclipse after its due diligence. 

“When we were originally diligencing Eclipse, we heard rumors that @neelsalami, had a history of sexual harassment. We passed pretty quickly on the investment.”

To save Eclipse from VC backlash and fend off further damning accusations, the firm put out a statement on the way forward. Part of the statement read,

“We look forward to sharing more background and details about the senior leaders at Eclipse in the coming days and are confident that we have a first-class team in place to reach new heights as a protocol.”

Although this was a commendable yet tough call for the firm, it remains to be seen how Eclipse will navigate public scrutiny and VC partners going forward. 

Additionally, it is not clear whether its planned L2 mainnet launch scheduled for Q2 2024 will be affected by the development.