The DefiLlama drama arose on Sunday when one of the project’s pseudonymous co-founders directed people on Twitter to a forked version of the blockchain data platform and warned of a hostile takeover sparked by a potential token launch.
“There is an ongoing attempt to launch a token that does not represent us,” 0xngmi said. “We don’t want to be associated with that.”
0xngmi said the person in control of DefiLlama’s web domain and Twitter account made the decision to announce the upcoming launch of a DefiLlama token despite internal reluctance from the team. The move resulted in 0xngmi launching the website llama.fi and a corresponding Twitter account, which had over 6,000 followers as of Sunday afternoon.
The website is very similar to defillama.com, except that links to some tools have been omitted, such as For example, the DefiLlama branded news website DLNews and the Web3 infrastructure service LlamaNodes.
0xLlam4, another pseudonymous co-founder of DefiLlama, confirmed this decrypt that he is the only person who owns the DefiLlama Twitter account and web domain. He said he’s trying to reach a resolution that best serves the project’s community.
“We hope to resolve things behind closed doors,” 0xLlam4 said decrypt via a Twitter message. “Keeping DeFiLlama as good as possible is the most important thing.”
0xLlam4 then stopped responding to questions.
Confusion ensued on the DefiLlama Discord server when a link to 0xngmi’s statement was posted, leaving community members wondering if DefiLlama was compromised or hacked.
“It’s real”, 0xngmi called on Discord. The co-founder later took to Twitter to say people didn’t need to “panic,” explaining that the site hadn’t been hacked, just that there was an ongoing disagreement over a token launch. 0xngmi did not immediately respond to requests for comments from decrypt.
The DefiLlama Twitter account yesterday teased that there might be “some nice surprises” in the future for people who contribute to and use the project’s services, capping the statement with a parachute emoji — without explicitly mentioning a drop from the to mention air.
Days earlier, the DefiLlama Twitter account retweeted a poll conducted earlier this month asking for input on how the service could generate revenue, adding that the account’s followers may have “missed another option.”
Although 0xngmi was the first to claim that DefiLlama was taken over in a hostile manner, a message was sent in one of the project’s Telegrams channels claimed that 0xngmi “gone rogue” less than an hour after 0xngmi’s first tweet.
“0xngmi and some team members have gone rogue, actively trying to seize Defillama’s IP and community while falsely claiming that the rightful owner is conducting a hostile takeover,” the statement said.
A pseudonymous DefiLlama employee named Tendeeno on Twitter attributed the conflict to the project’s lack of revenue, leading to the 0xLlam4-0xngmi divide.
Tendeeno claimed that 0xLlam4’s solution launched a DefiLlama-branded token, giving 0xLlam4 “with or without the consent of an individual member of the [DefiLlama] Team.” 0xLlam4 said the statement was incorrect without further elaborating.
Tendeeno has resisted the idea of a token launch, saying it would be “dirt” on the project’s reputation with no going back. And because 0xLlam4 controls DefiLlama’s Twitter account, he said, “You could announce a token at any time and essentially hold the team hostage.”
Aside from going against an alleged majority of the team’s wishes, Tendeeno said that a token launch would hamper how the project is currently functioning, stating that “tokens distract people via ‘y number go’ messages.”
But regardless of whether DefiLlama decides to create its own cryptocurrency in the future, the idea has sparked conversation on DefiLlama’s Discord server on Sunday, with several users asking when it will be launched. A user named Denome called, “You can avoid the “y number go down” messages, but not the “wen token?” messages. Announcements.”
