As is tradition, let’s start with an explanation. André Cronje is one of the most popular project developers in the world of decentralised finance. It was he who created Yearn Finance, which was the real hit of the so-called DeFi-let in 2020. The YFI project token showed incredible returns and went from a few hundred dollars in mid-July to $43,000 by mid-September. Here’s the relevant chart.

Yearn Finance YFI project rate chart in mid-2020

Given the success, many users wanted to find the “next YFI”, which made them follow the developer’s activity closely. Even Google queries make it clear that investors are trying to watch Cronje’s wallet, among others, in an attempt to see the new token among the first.

Google queries about Andre Cronje

However, Andre has now decided to step back from development. Here’s what’s happened.

Andre Cronje’s projects – on pause

Cryptocurrencies associated with Cronje’s projects like FTM and YFI have plummeted in value following the surprise announcement. For example, yearn.finance (YFI) sank at least 13 percent from nearly $20,000 to $17,000 in just an hour. Fantom (FTM) has fallen 15 per cent in the last 24 hours and is trading around $1.42 at the time of writing. New project Solidly (SOLID), which was launched just last week, is down more than 64 per cent.

Here’s Nell’s quote on Cronje’s decision, published by news outlet Decrypt. In it, the developer announces the decision made.

Andre and I have decided that we are closing the DeFi/cryptocurrency development chapter. There are about 25 apps and services that we are officially suspending on 3 April 2022.

Anton Nell’s tweet

Cronje and Nell will discontinue the applications and platforms, among which yearn.fi, keep3r.network, multichain.xyz, chainlist.org, solidly.exchange and bribe.crv.finance are among those mentioned. Neither Cronje nor Nell responded to a request for comment on their decision in an exclusive interview with journalists. They are unlikely to reveal all the details to the public.

Read also: What threatens major crypto projects from the decentralised finance world DeFi: expert response

Be that as it may, the initial panic among investors has no real reason, believes another blockchain developer nicknamed banteg. He posted the following message on his Twitter account.

People who are already “burying” YFI – do you realise that Andre hasn’t worked on the project for over a year as it is? Even if he was working, there is a team of 50 fully involved and 140 partially involved programmers besides him.

In other words, the founder's departure from the project doesn't mean anything at this point, since dozens of other people have been supporting his work for a long time.

The rise of cryptocurrencies

Etherium developer James Hancock also commented on the situation. His comment concerned concerns about the smart contracts launched by Cronje.

As long as the smart contracts are immutable or do not require André’s approval to make changes, they will continue to operate as deployed. What Cronje closes is the web pages that connect to these contracts. Technically, anyone can deploy a UI for these services, but that doesn’t mean anyone will.

In other words, DeFi interfaces can be run by anyone if necessary. However, there is an important nuance here: despite decentralisation, users still tend to trust the developer/company behind the project. Therefore, a potential relaunch on behalf of a previously unknown person may be doomed to failure. Especially if in the end it turns out to be a scammer who simply used the famous developer’s name to “make money”.

André Cronje

Recall that Cronje himself has repeatedly announced “his complete withdrawal” from decentralised finance. The reasons were different – criticism, burnout, overstretch and so on. Recently he has not been actively involved in the development and now it seems that he will not be involved at all. How this will turn out for DeFi in the long term is unknown. However, it is important to understand that the decentralised finance niche has not developed only because of Andre’s presence in it.


We believe that André Cronje's departure from blockchain development and support will not affect the coin industry globally. Although he is a celebrity, the vast majority of platforms have emerged without his involvement. Accordingly, the current event is unlikely to affect the fate of the projects, although their users did panic at first. There is also reason to believe that we will find out the real reason for the departure of the top developer.