The founder of the DeFi project yEarn Finance, Andre Cronje, has called for regulation of the crypto industry, drawing criticism from the community.
In early March Cronje left the crypto industry together with senior Fantom Foundation architect Anton Nell. Nell said they were stepping back from around 25 projects they had worked on.
On April 18 Cronje published a piece titled “The Rise and Fall of Crypto Culture.”
In it, he suggested that the current generation of developers in the industry is repeating the mistakes of the founders of the existing monetary system in an attempt to “do something better.”
Cronje contrasted the notions of crypto-ethos and crypto-culture. The former included ideas of sovereign rights, self-sacrifice and self-improvement. The latter he linked to property rights, wealth and ego.
According to him, crypto-culture “has strangled the idea of cryptocurrency.”
“Right now I see the need for regulation not as a mechanism of prevention but as a means of protection,” Cronje said.
He expressed confidence that in the future “we will see the rise of a new blockchain economy driven not by greed but by trust, not gullibility.” At the same time Cronje indicated that he does not intend to return to the industry.
The article sparked a strong reaction within the community.
“The man who made tens of millions, created numerous shitcoins and projects thanks to the lack of regulation. He left the industry, and now advocates for investor protection and regulation. Welcome to clown world,” wrote a popular Twitter trader under the handle Tree of Alpha.
-man who made 9 to 10 figs
-building multitudes of shitcoins and projects
-thanks to crypto’s lack of regulation
-quits the space
-now advocates for the biggest meme of all, investor protection and regulationWelcome to clown world.https://t.co/3hd8baFMLj pic.twitter.com/FH0e4CLn94
— Tree of Alpha (@Tree_of_Alpha) April 18, 2022
“One can only hope that some regulators are applying mega-legal pressure on the guy, and it's just a psyop. Although, I'm not sure,” commented Larry Cermak, The Block's vice president of research.
Here is to hoping some regulators are putting mega legal pressure on the guy and it’s just psyops. Not sure though
— Larry Cermak (@lawmaster) April 18, 2022
DeFi YouTube channel host Chris Blec wrote:
“Now that he's got your money, Cronje says DeFi needs government intervention. Because you're a child and don't know how to keep your fingers away from the toaster. He omits the fact that he is the guy who deliberately made and sold faulty toasters.”
Now that he's got your money, Cronje says DeFi needs govt intervention because you're a child that doesn't know how to keep your finger out of a toaster.
The part he leaves out is that he is the guy that made & marketed the intentionally faulty toasters.
https://t.co/6EmHOvcfBD pic.twitter.com/cIbbtHJRtN— Chris Blec (@ChrisBlec) April 18, 2022
“Test in production,” hinted one of the users at Cronje's project's ambiguous hack.
“Test in production”
— Eric Lutzen 🐙 🌔 (@Eric20Token) April 18, 2022
In September 2020, an unknown party funds worth $15 million withdrew from the unfinished DeFi protocol Eminence. Victims noted that the team actively promoted the project, even though it had yet to launch officially.
In October of the same year, crypto investors suffered losses after the execution of a pump-and-dump scheme with the token of Cronje's new DeFi experiment.
As noted earlier, in January 2021 the expert discovered a critical vulnerability in the newly launched DeFi protocol yCredit from the creator of yEarn Finance. The bug allowed draining all user funds.
In February a hacker stole $2.8 million from the very pool of yEarn Finance.