- Andre Cronje has officially left DeFi and cryptocurrency, intending to return to traditional finance
- Following the announcement, projects associated with the iconic DeFi builder plunged
Andre Cronje, the founder of Yearn Finance and a technical advisor to the Fantom Foundation, together with his partner Anton Nell—who served as a senior solutions architect at the Foundation—are stepping away from the cryptocurrency and DeFi space.
Last week it became clear that Cronje, who rose quickly to prominence in DeFi with his yield-optimizing protocol, planned to leave the industry. He deleted his Twitter activity, deactivated his profile, and updated his LinkedIn to indicate he had departed both DeFi and the Fantom Foundation.
The departure of the two developers leaves a large mark
In a series of tweets, Nell explained that following their exit, roughly 25 applications and services would be taken offline starting April 3. He also clarified that the decision to close their chapter in DeFi and crypto was not abrupt; it had been under consideration for some time.
“Unlike some reactionary ‘building in DeFi sucks’ outbursts, this is not an instinctive response to criticism after releasing a project; it’s a decision that developed over time. Thanks to everyone who supported us these past years,” Nell wrote on his Twitter account.
However, as Cronje later confirmed to Crypto Briefing, the projects themselves are not being abandoned entirely. Instead, he and Nell are “simply transferring/removing the domains and webapps” they control. By stepping away from DeFi and crypto, the two developers intend to resume careers in traditional finance.
The team behind the Fantom network also confirmed that development would continue as planned despite Cronje’s departure.
“Therefore, Fantom’s development will not be affected by Andre’s decision. Great things are coming as scheduled. We remain on track to deploy snapsync and a short-term DB upgrade, and to release middleware improvements such as flat storage and FVM,” the Fantom team stated.
Markets react
News of Cronje’s exit sparked market-wide anxiety, and fear quickly took hold. Projects tied to his work saw significant losses in value across markets.
Data from DeFi Llama showed the Fantom chain lost more than 20% in Total Value Locked (TVL) within 24 hours, while its token FTM dropped about 17.57% during the same period and was trading around $1.35. Yearn Finance fell nearly 10% over the day and was trading at approximately $18,010.15.
Notably, this is not the first time Cronje has stepped back from active participation in DeFi. As Fantom CEO Michael Kong suggested, this could be another example of a developer choosing to distance himself after sustained criticism and hostility.