DefiLlama forked as internal dispute unfolds

A disagreement over the launch of a LLAMA token led core employees to fork DefiLlama blockchain on March 19.

A dispute has taken place within the decentralized finance (DeFi) analytics dashboard DefiLlama, leading the platform to be forked by one of its employees over the weekend. 

The dispute centers on the company’s plans to launch a token. On March 19, pseudonymous developer at DefiLlama 0xngmi announced the firm’s team was forking the platform, which was “undergoing a hostile takeover”, accusing DefiLlama’s founders of launching a token without its employees’ support.

The DefiLlama team is forking Defillama@Defillama is undergoing a hostile takeover

There is an ongoing attempt to launch a token that does not represent us. We don’t want to be associated with it

Use https://t.co/G0h4uBo2mL and @llamadotfi instead!

— 0xngmi (llamazip arc) (@0xngmi) March 19, 2023

According to 0xngmi, a person controlling both defillama’s Twitter and domain decided to launch a token “despite everybody in the team not wanting it,” said the developer before adding that “the DefiLlama team who have built the site […] for the past three years have decided to fork Defillama and start fresh on llama.fi.” 

“Long story short, there was someone planning to launch a LLAMA token without approval of a single person on the defillama team,” said on Twitter pseudonymous user Tendeeno, claiming to be a contributor on several Llama Corp. projects, the parent company of DefiLlama.

Cointelegraph reached out to 0xngmi and Llama Corp., but did not receive immediate responses. In a Telegram channel, Llama Corp. said:

“0xngmi and a few team members have gone rogue, they are actively looking to seize DefiLlama IP and community while inaccurately claiming the rightful owner to be doing a hostile takeover.”

Some Twitter users are showing support for DefiLlama co-founders Charlie Watkins and Ben Hauser. DeFi architect and Yearn.finance founder Andre Cronje said: 

“Easy to be ideological when you aren’t paying the bills. Charlie has been out of pocket funding all of defillamas expenses for years, it isn’t cheap. Watching everyone turn on everything he has done is disgusting. Him trying to stop the bleeding isn’t greed, it’s sustainability. Let’s see how long they last without his “free money”. They’ll be raising or adding ads or a token soon enough.”