In 2022, Andre Cronje, a popular figure in decentralized finance (DeFi), decided to step away from public view. This wasn’t marked by any dramatic announcement or frustration but was a quiet exit from the spotlight.
While at the time Andre’s co-founder broke the news in a tweet, Andre has opened up about the story behind the decision, which was filled with challenges.
In January, 2020, Andre launched Yearn Finance with a commitment to be transparent and compliant. According to him, he raised no money, sold no tokens, and ensured there was no financial gain for himself from the project. The code was open-source and freely accessible to everyone.
As a non-US citizen with no financial ties to the country, he believed he was operating within all legal and regulatory boundaries.
In 2021, he launched another project, Keep3r, under similar principles. However, that same year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reached out with a letter seeking information about Yearn Finance. They wanted details about fundraising, investors, and profit distribution. Although he compiled and provided the requested information after weeks of research, this was just the beginning, said Andre.
Andre stated via his Medium page that as more letters arrived, the nature of the inquiries shifted. Initially focused on fundraising and SEC violations, the investigations later turned to Yearn’s vaults. The SEC scrutinized whether these vaults functioned as investment vehicles, questioning how benefits were distributed to users and whether Andre himself was gaining from them.
The process was exhausting and time-consuming, requiring Andre to stop his work on new projects and dedicate all his energy and resources to legal responses.
To Andre, the stress of the ongoing battle had become overwhelming. And while he had no legal team or significant funds to support the fight, with the help of legal experts like Gabriel Shapiro and Stephen Palley, he managed to navigate the situation.
Still, the toll was immense. After two years of sleepless nights, financial strain, and relentless scrutiny, Andre stated that he came to faced a tough decision: to continue building without personal benefit while fighting regulatory hurdles or to step away entirely. He chose the latter.
“I am sure many here would say I should have not buckled, but I also believe anyone that says that has never been in a position like this,” he explained. “You receive all of the downside, but none of the benefit.”
Despite the challenges, Andre’s passion for DeFi never faded. He continued: “That being said, my addiction with the space was unavoidable, I spent a few months focusing on tradfi and regulatory positioning, trying to teach myself as much as I could, and then quickly returned to working on the things I loved, decentralized finance and scaling our base layers.”
Read also: Andre Cronje voices support for Solana amid congestion concerns
After a brief period exploring traditional finance and regulatory systems, André quietly returned to developing innovative solutions in decentralized finance. “I simply could not be public, but kept working tirelessly all these years, and it is why I am finally close to releasing my new primitives,” he announced on the post.
Today, Andre says he’s optimistic about the future of DeFi and is preparing to release new tools and ideas to help build a more decentralized world. Reflecting on his difficult journey, he hopes no other builders have to endure the stress and obstacles he faced.
For Andre, the focus remains on advancing the technology and principles he loves, creating a better foundation for the decentralized systems of tomorrow.
This is also similar to the narrative experienced by ZachXBT. ZachXBT is an anonymous blockchain researcher and investigator widely known for exposing scams, frauds, and unethical behavior in the cryptocurrency space.
Recently, he restated that he is not rewarded for all the work he puts into attacking scammers and helping projects, individuals, and government organizations retrieve stolen funds.
He pointed out that the US government got hacked for $20 million; he was not given anything. “Also, when the US government got hacked for $20M a few months ago, I helped recover a sizable amount of those funds,” he revealed. “Was rewarded zero for that.”
Andre is the co-founder and architect of Sonic Labs, the developer of “the highest-performing EVM L1 with 10,000 TPS at sub-second finality.” Sonic Labs was previously know as as the Fantom, In May 2024, it rebranded as Sonic Labs and introduced the Sonic Chain, a new layer-1 blockchain platform.
