Fantom (FTM) has suffered a significant decline amid the wider crypto market sell-off.
At present, Fantom trades at $1.36, down 17.45% over the past 24 hours. It shows a 24-hour trading volume of $2,459,245,631, a market capitalization of $3,480,367,098, and a circulating supply of 2,545,006,273 FTM tokens.
Below we examine the key factors contributing to Fantom’s recent price drop.
Why is Fantom (FTM) plunging?
Before outlining the forces driving FTM’s decline, it helps to clarify what the Fantom token represents.
Fantom (FTM) is the native token of the Fantom blockchain, an open-source, decentralized smart contract platform created as an alternative to Ethereum for decentralized applications (dApps) and digital assets.
The main contributors to the current price fall are the withdrawal of support from prominent developer Andre Cronje (a major figure in Fantom DeFi) and a noticeable drop in Fantom’s total value locked (TVL).
Andre Cronje’s withdrawal
A key shock to the Fantom community was the announcement that Andre Cronje and his business partner Anton would withdraw their active support from the Fantom ecosystem.
Anton confirmed the move, stating:
“Andre and I have decided that we are closing the chapter on contributing to the DeFi/crypto space. There are roughly ~25 apps and services that we will be shutting down on April 3, 2022.”
On Telegram, Andre indicated they will complete the handover process and reassured the community that Fantom and its ecosystem projects should be able to operate independently.
Fantom TVL drops 21%
The news of Andre Cronje’s withdrawal dealt a heavy blow to Fantom and many projects within its ecosystem. Following the announcement, Fantom’s total value locked (TVL) declined by about 21%.
While the market reacted negatively to Andre and Anton’s decision, the Fantom Foundation responded with a positive tone in their statement, noting:
“We are extremely grateful to Andre for everything he has done for crypto as a whole. However, Fantom was not and has never been a one-person show. Fantom’s development will not be affected by Andre’s decision. Major developments remain on track. We are still planning to release snap synchronization and a DB upgrade in the short term and will roll out middleware improvements such as flat storage and FVM.”
Recovery for the Fantom community may take time unless new contributors with comparable talent and commitment emerge to drive the ecosystem forward. In the short term, the foundation’s roadmap and continued development efforts will be important signals for investor and developer confidence.