Founder of Wonderland DeFi project contemplates its closure

Co-founder of the DeFi project Wonderland, Daniele Sestagalli, said he is prepared to shut it down amid a serious split in the community.

At the end of January it emerged that Sestagalli’s partner and treasury manager is Michael Patryn. The man who had been operating under the alias 0xSifu is known as the co-founder of the bankrupt QuadrigaCX exchange. He had previously been convicted of financial crimes.

Because of the outrage in the community, Sestagalli proposed that Patryn step down ahead of a vote on his appointment. Some 87.56% opposed 0xSifu continuing to manage the protocol’s assets.

Subsequently there was a vote on a proposal to dissolve the project and return funds to investors. It was supported by more than 34% of voters; at one point the figure was higher.

“The Wonderland experiment is coming to an end. The results of the vote show that the community is split. It is the core and heart of the project. If we cannot reach an agreement on whether to continue or not, it means that we have failed,” wrote Sestagalli.

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Wonderland experiment is coming to an end. It is clear from the vote that the community is divided. The core and heart of Wonderland is still the community. If we cannot find agreement on wether to continue or not, it means that we failed.

— Daniele never asks to DM (@danielesesta) January 30, 2022

According to him, because the vote results were close to 50/50, there is “only one way forward — compensate and wind everything down”.

He added that he is working with the team on a new proposal.

In the community, various rescue options for the project have been developed, including a merger with the Abracadabra protocol or launching Wonderland 2.0 with a more transparent governance system of a decentralised autonomous organisation ДАО.

As of writing, the vote to preserve the project and treasury has current support at 54%.

The native Wonderland token (TIME), which reached a peak of $10,063 in October 2021, has fallen 96% (CoinGecko). The asset is trading at around $400. This is roughly 53% above the low of $261.88 reached amid the Patryn controversy.

Netflix announced plans to release a documentary film about the death of QuadrigaCX founder and CEO Gerald Cotten.