The cryptocurrency market’s unsuspicious start to a fresh week was carried two major undertones – Bitcoin’s move below $38K and developer Andre Cronje’s departure from the DeFi space. As a result, DeFi tokens were hit hard in particular, with the total DeFi market cap down by 6% compared to yesterday. Noting the losses suffered by Fantom and Yearn Finance, will other top DeFi projects be next on the chopping block? Early data suggests that it is highly unlikely.
Andre Cronje’s exit triggered a selling frenzy among some listed projects. Those hit heaviest were Yearn Finance’s YFI, Fantom’s FTM, and Keep3r’s KP3R. At press time, the coins declined by 14%, 9%, and 24%, respectively, over the last 24 hours.
The Twitter community gave mixed reactions to the ‘Godfather’ of DeFi’s crypto departure, with some criticizing the move and others sympathetic towards his decision to leave the sector. However, one question remained – What about the future of DeFi? Will the sector be scarred permanently?
Yearn Finance And Fantom Will Live On
To clarify, it is first important to understand that top projects Cronje was directly affiliated with assured investors would continue to live on despite popular opinion. Pseudonymous Yearn.Finance developer banteg opinioned that Andre had not worked with YFI for over a year and the project was backed by 50 other full-time workers.
The Fantom Foundation also clarified that the project wasn’t a ‘one-man team’ while thanking Andre for his contributions to the sector.
DeFi Secure?
Yes, Cronje’s retreat is a worrying sign for the DeFi sector but there is a notion that the category carries a ‘too big to fail’ tag. Top media houses have touted DeFi as the future of finance and perhaps the most important development in the industry.
As per DeFi pulse, the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi is currently worth is around $80 Billion. However, Matthew Roszak, co-founder of the DeFi platform Vesper, believes that DeFi could evolve into an $800 Billion industry in 2022. If so, DeFi would account for half of the total crypto market cap when compared to current levels. Incidentally, seven out of the top 10 coins are already associated with DeFi.
It seemed as if the broader FUD did not stretch across the other top DeFi projects. Data from DeFi pulse showed that the total value locked in Solana, Avalanche, and Terra slipped by 3%, 2%, 4%, respectively, while Cardano’s rose by 1.3%. In comparison, the 24-hour TVL of Fantom declined by 22%. Surprisingly, YFI’s TVL too a minor hit of just 2.5% during the day. The data suggested that losses in top DeFi coins were independent of Cronje’s DeFi retreat and more in line with broader market losses.