Speculation have been spreading throughout the cryptoverse that the major blockchainย tech bridge Multichain team has been arrested by the Chinese police โ with the shockwaves hitting the Fantom (FTM) ecologicalย system softer than expected.ย
Per plentyย of Twitter accounts, the Chinese community has been reporting the core team membersโ arrests, likewise as that law enforcement gained control of a wallet with some $1.5 Billion โ &1.7 Billion in it.ย
โAlfred Xu, the co- founder of Multichain, stated in the official Telegram community that theย present team is healthy, the main business is normal, the route will be restored automatically, and the team is working normally,โ Gwei Research wrote. ย
The Multichain team did not provide further clarification. On May 24, they shared that โwhile most of the cross-chain routes of Multichain protocol are functioning well, some of the cross-chain routes are unavailable owingย to force majeure, and the time for service to resume is unknown.โ
Force majeure is a French term thatย implies โgreater forceโ or an โact of Godโ โ an event outside oneโs control and accountability.ย
Multichain alsoย mentionedย that it would compensate influenced users.
That stated, it is asย ofย now not clear if the reports are accurate.
Inย theย meantime, researcher Defi Ignas noted a 520 percent spike in daily bridged volume, adding that deposits hadย moreย than withdrawals by $18 Million dollars following the rumors.ย
The fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) โresulted in a 5x boostย in daily bridging volume,โ said the researcher.ย
Multichain is a major bridge ( wasย known Anyswap before the 2021 exploit) that enables interaction betwixt plentyย of major blockchainsย teck, including Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, and BNB Chain.
Per DeFiLlama, it asย ofย now has a $1.5 Billion total value locked (TVL), while multichain.org shows $1.75 billion.
It is not surprising that related corporations would move right away: itโsย worthย notingย that, Binance said it temporarily stopped deposits for plentyย of cryptoย tokens โwhile we await clarity from the Multichain team.โ Plentyย of hours thereafter, it resumed deposits for FTM.
The Fantom Case
Prominent Chinese journalist Colin Wu pointedย outย that the Fantom network accounts for the highest proportion of Multichainโs TVL, and that, thisย isย why, Fantom has โlarge exposure.โย
Fantomโs share in TVL is $643.45 Million, with Ethereumโs $312.21 Million in Second place, reportsย by multichain.org.
Per research company Thanefield Capital, 35 percent of Fantomโs assets are announced by Multichain, including 80 percent of its total cryptoย stablecoin market capitalization.ย
Regardlessย of how exposed Fantom is and that one would expect to see major outflows, plentyย of researchers stated that thereย is not manyย of panic to see there.
โThe clearest sign of panic is the Multichain LPs on Fantom,โ Decentralizedย Finance Ignas said, citing DeFiLlama data. A total of $33 Million was withdrawn by LPs from Fantom by the time of the tweet, with only $1.7 Million in deposits.
Fantom did not clarify the situation either; it only tweeted on Thursday that the Multichain bridge with Fantom โis operating as normal.โ
Atย theย timeย ofย publication, FTM was unchanged inย theย previous 24 hours and was down 11 percent inย theย previous week, per CoinGecko. It was currentlyย worth $0.329.ย
FTM 30-day price chart:
Moving funds
There were additional reports of funds being moved by alleged team members, while the MULTI price took the hit.
And thatโs not all. Blockchainย Tech analytics company Arkham Intelligence stated that major MULTI cryptoย token holders moved some $3 Million in just 24 hours.
Still, Decentralizedย Finance Ignas claimedย that โperhaps the worst is isย still to come, but on-chain data doesnโt reveal a substantial outflow of capital.โ
That stated, the researcher did note the lack of communication from the team, calling it โworrying.โย
Mutichainโs MULTI coin was currentlyย worth $3.9 on Friday morning (UTC time). It dropped 20 percent in a day and 50 percent in a week.ย
MULTI 30-day price chart:
Learn more:ย
โ Growth in Digital Assets Trade Puts the Spotlight on Blockchainย Tech Bridge Security Risks
โ Multichain Future Brings Numerous Competitors to Bitcoinย (BTC) & Ethereumย (ETH) โ Analysts
โ The Future of Webย 3.0 Will Be Multichain and Chainless at the Same Time
โ A Multichain World Is Key to the Success of Web 3.0 and the Metaverse
โ What is Blockchain?
โ How to Use Binanceย Cryptoย exchange Smart Chain (BSC) with MetaMask
