Across Protocol Team Accused of Withdrawing $23 Million from DAO; ACX Token Falls 10%

The price of Across Protocol’s token (ACX) has dropped by more than 10% following accusations against the team of manipulating the DAO and engaging in insider trading prior to its listing on Binance.

TLDR: Across Protocol/Bridge ($ACX) team used secret votes to extract ~$23m from the Across DAO’s treasury for their own private company’s benefit.

Background: I’ve many times posted about DAOs that are DAOs “in name only” — that is, organizations that pretend to be run by “the…

— ogle | glue.net (@cryptogle) June 26, 2025

At the time of writing, the asset is trading at $0.13 (-10.1% over the day), according to CoinGecko.

The founder of the Glue platform, under the pseudonym Ogle, claimed that the Across Protocol team withdrew ACX tokens worth approximately $23 million from the treasury. According to him, the funds were directed to their “private commercial company,” Risk Labs. The team allegedly used controlled wallets to vote for “favorable” proposals without disclosing their interest.

Risk Labs CEO Hart Lambur denied the allegations.

I am the founder of Across. The allegations in here are categorically untrue and I will vigorously defend our protocol and our team.

In no way has the Across team “extracted” value from the DAO. That is so insane it’s hard to even respond to.

I’ve been building in this space…

— Hart Lambur (⛺️,⛺️) (@hal2001) June 27, 2025

He stated that Risk Labs is a non-profit organization registered in the Cayman Islands, not a private company. According to Lambur, the grants were used for protocol development and team expansion, not personal enrichment.

Risk Labs CEO added that employees voted with personal wallets, which were not concealed. He also noted that one of the contentious proposals was unanimously approved, with no objections during the seven-day voting window.

Later, LayerZero founder Bryan Pellegrino suggested that Lambur might have engaged in insider trading.

So… someone just sent me this. Is buying your own token ahead of upcoming listing legal?

Doesn’t look great. pic.twitter.com/480ANNt77v

— Bryan Pellegrino (臭企鹅) (@PrimordialAA) June 27, 2025

In his view, the CEO of Risk Labs purchased ACX shortly before its unexpected listing on Binance in December 2024.

Lambur called this “disgusting behavior from a competitor.”

“We had no idea Binance would list ACX. We found out from Twitter, like everyone else. The exchange can confirm this,” he stated.

Lambur confirmed that he purchased tokens from a public wallet to support the project and still holds them. The CEO of Risk Labs said the team communicated with Binance in early 2024, but contacts ceased several months before the listing. He accused Pellegrino of slander due to competition.

Back in May 2024, teams from Uniswap Labs and Across Protocol proposed a new industry standard, ERC-7683.