Multichain Can't Find Its CEO as Company Loses Access to Its Servers

By Pedro Solimano

Multichain continues to run into problems, now at the protocol level.

Last week, rumors surfaced that Chinese authorities had arrested several Multichain executives, including Chief Executive Officer Zhaojun. Although the arrests still haven't been denied or confirmed by authorities, Binance was forced to respond to the news and suspend certain token deposits.

Law enforcement officials are rumored to have taken control of a $1.6 billion wallet belonging to the company, according to several Twitter accounts.

This week’s troubles began on Monday, according to Multichain’s Twitter account, which announced today the protocol has experienced multiple issues due to “unforeseeable consequences.” Despite the team’s efforts to maintain the protocol, they said they were “unable to reach” CEO Zhaojun in order to access key servers.

Today’s alert was prompted by issues with a network of nodes within Multichain, known as Router5, affecting cross-chain services for several other blockchains. These blockchains are: Keychain, PublicMint, Dyno Chain, Red Light Chain, Dexit, Ekta, HPB, ONUS, Omax, Findora, Planq.

The team has requested partners stop calling smart contracts running on Multichain, at least until they are able to obtain permissions and access to the protocol’s servers.

Multichain—known as Anyswap before it suffered an $8 million exploit in 2021—is one of the largest blockchain bridges in crypto, with total transaction volumes exceeding $100 billion earlier this year. The bridge facilitates the exchange of tokens across multiple networks, allowing for ecosystems such as Binance Chain, Avalanche, Polygon, and Ethereum to interact with one another.

Conor Grogan, head of product at Coinbase, tweeted today’s problems will affect only a small number of users, showcasing the low transaction output on the above-mentioned networks.

Uncertainty on Crypto Twitter is growing, however, with rumors surfacing that Chinese cryptocurrency exchange Gate.io is also suffering liquidity issues. The company has officially denied the allegations, although they have provided no evidence on the matter.

Despite today’s news, Multichain’s native token, MULTI, hasn’t been affected over the past 24 hours, with a 3.1% increase, changing hands at $4.13. Since last week’s issues, however, the token has dropped nearly 19%, according to Coingecko.

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