“Crypto is dead,” Yearn Finance’s Cronje says amidst talk of indefinite departure

• Yearn Finance founder Andre Cronje stepped down from his posts at Yearn Finance and Fantom in March.
• Calling on regulation, the developer says crypto is now led by greed rather than trust.

While the crypto tide mostly converts critics to proponents, there are still those who turn from cheerleaders to naysayers. Andre Cronje, the Founder of Yearn Finance, belongs to the latter category. The developer recently called out the industry, saying “crypto is dead,” among many other faults.

Just a few weeks ago, Cronje announced his indefinite departure from the digital asset industry. The developer stepped down from his positions at the decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms Yearn Finance and Fantom. He also (informally) took off his “godfather of DeFi” crown.

On Monday, Cronje went on to clarify his reasons for walking out on the industry. Majorly, Cronje’s idea of the crypto space does not marry with what it is in its current state. He criticizes its get-rich-quick mentality, saying the industry is “dead.”

Cronje: Crypto is now for wealth, entitlement and ego, not trust

In a blog post, the developer says he still believes in the core principles of cryptocurrency. That is, self-custody and financial empowerment. However, at present, the majority of the crypto community was part of it for wealth, entitlement, and ego.

Additionally, he points to recent events in crypto, saying the space is in need of regulation. Oversight, he says, is mostly not to prevent fraud, but to protect the investors within crypto. He adds that regulating the industry is synonymous with protecting an unwary child from harming itself:

It’s like a child trying to stick their finger into an electric outlet, you stop them before they can learn why they shouldn’t. One day they will understand, but not today.

More so, he likened the crypto industry to the nascent days of monetary policy. In those days, Cronje says most things were done through trial and error. Differently, the crypto community seems to have put many of its errors on rinse, repeat.

True to that, cryptocurrencies have plummeted since late last year, now trading sideways due to a myriad of uncertainties. Hacks, phishing scams, and other forms of cyberattacks have also become increasingly common, with the largest hack yet reported just recently. 

Into “the badlands”

Now referring to crypto as “the badlands,” Cronje says he has no intentions of returning to the crypto space, especially not in its current form. Possibly reinforcing that, the developer now appears to be leading an investment banking platform by the name “Segwit Holdings.” 

Despite the criticism and his departure, Cronje expects that the blockchain community will someday be governed by trust, rather than greed. Whether this will come to pass, remains to be seen.

Jackson Palmer is another prominent crypto developer (a Dogecoin co-creator) who left the industry for similar reasons. Palmer complained that the crypto industry was drowning in capitalism, the very same thing its ethos is against.