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Multichain has revealed that it has been unable to contact its CEO, Zhaojun, leading to rumors surrounding potential arrest amid ongoing technical issues. As per the tweet that broke the news, Multichain stated that it had done everything it could to keep the protocol running, but is currently unable to contact the CEO and obtain the necessary server access for maintenance. Multichain is facing technical troubles since the previous week, with a number of transactions being delayed across a series of cross-chain bridges without any clear explanation.
Based on one of the many rumors floating around on Twitter, the Chinese authorities have arrested the Multichain team and have also confiscated approximately $1.5 billion in contract funds. As of now, all of these rumors are unconfirmed.
Multichain stated in its tweet that several protocols were affected by some problems on the Router5 node, which is responsible for supporting seamless connections between different chains. With the team being unable to contact the CEO, it had to suspend services for a total of 10 chains, which include Kekchain, Public Mint, Ekta, HBP, and more.
The protocol team stated,
“In order to protect the interests of our users, we have decided to suspend the corresponding cross-chain service for the affected chain on the UI”
Uncertainty Surrounding Multichain – What’s Next?
Many Twitter users are expressing their rage and frustration towards Multichain. They are pointing out the platform’s inability to access the server and also highlighting the platform’s step back from decentralization.
Despite the ongoing situation at Multichain, the native token, MULTI, is performing well in the market. Issues like these tend to ravage the trading price of a native token, but the situation is the opposite for MULTI. At the time of writing, MULTI has surged by 3.54% in the previous 24 hours, pushing the trading price up to $4.09. Currently, the total market cap of MULTI stands at the $59 million mark.
Moreover, Binance has suspended deposits for a total of 10 bridged tokens on the BNB Chain, Fantom, Ethereum, and Avalanche networks. At the same time, the erratic downtime also set the stage for the Fantom Foundation to remove approximately 449,740 MULTI tokens worth $2.4 million from its liquidity on SushiSwap.
The blockchain analytics firm, Lookonchain, highlighted MULTI outflows worth a staggering $3 million to smart money contracts just last week. Therefore, there is a lot of uncertainty about the future of the Multichain protocol and its native token.