Yearn.Finance (YFI) Up 33% As Andre Cronje Disappearance Raises DeFi Questions

Last Updated on 9 October 2020 by CryptoTips.eu


Jeroen Kok

Jeroen is one of the lead copywriters on Cryptotips.eu and discusses all recent events in the crypto market. This includes news updates, but also price analyzes and more. He developed his passion for cryptocurrency during the bull run in 2017. He has learned a lot since then. The combination of cryptocurrency and creative writing is perfect for Jeroen and an excellent way to share his knowledge with a wide audience. Find me on LinkedIn / [email protected]

After the Sushi drama (developer Chef Nomi sold his pre-mined coins which sank the price of a much hyped DeFi coin) unfolded, many saw YFI (Yearn Finance) as the next big thing. Developer Andre Cronje had a stellar reputation in the market and had been working silently on the sidelines since then.

YFI slowly flippened the price of Bitcoin and even went to look for ever greater heights, reaching a price point of some $43.8k as ATH. But as the DeFi selloff started to gather pace, so grew the interest in YFI as it seemed one of the only ones able to withstand a massive correction.

But then on 28 September, as Cronje (apparently) was sleeping, a hacker drained $15 million of funds from his newest Eminence project and the developer was met with fire and fury from those who had poured money into the project.

By 29 September, after the Eminence debacle shattered him, Andre announced his retreat from social media and claimed he had received death threats. He stated:

As I am receiving a fair amount of threats, I have asked yearn treasury to assist with refunding the 8m the hacker sent. The multisig is safer and as such I feel more comfortable with them having the funds. Funds will be returned to holders pre-hack snapshot.

At that moment, the price of YFI was still some $25k. Problem is that the DeFi fans need someone to cheer on, and the disappearance of Andre ever since has some wondering whether it is correlated with DeFi’s disappearing importance.

Bitcoin flipping YFI?

By now, YFI is trading at a level of $17.1k (up 33% in the past 24 hours), with a strong rebound seen as from the moment it hit the $13k mark yesterday. YFI investors seem reluctant to let their favorite crypto coin descend underneath the Bitcoin price, which is trading at $10,900 at the moment of writing.

Although his fans are urging him to return, a fellow YFI developer named Banteg has since declared:

Andre said he won’t be Tweeting anymore. People got what they asked for.

Given the boring state of Bitcoin, the silent state of crypto markets as a whole and the negative trend of DeFi coins in particular, we must agree with Alex Svanenik who claimed just yesterday:

A tweet from Andre Cronje Tech now could be market moving.