- May 31, 2023
- Posted by: [email protected]
- Category:
Binance has temporarily suspended deposits for certain bridged tokens as it seeks clarity from the Multichain team over the ongoing delays in transactions across various cross-chain bridges. This suspension comes after a series of stuck transactions, causing uncertainty surrounding the Multichain (MULTI) protocol.
Transactions across multiple cross-chain bridges have experienced delays, prompting concerns among users. The Multichain team’s failure to communicate about these ongoing challenges has intensified the uncertainty surrounding the situation.
On May 24, Multichain announced that some cross-chain routes were unavailable “due to force majeure,” with no clear indication of when the services would be restored. This tweet was the last communication from the protocol on social media, leaving users seeking further information. Previously, the delays were attributed to a backend node upgrade.
The affected tokens include Polkastarter (POLS), AlpacaToken (ALPACA), Travala.com (AVA), Spell (SPELL), Fantom (FTM), Alchemy (ACH), Beefy (BIFI), SuperVerse (SUPER), Harvest Finance (FARM), and DeXe (DEXE). Users relying on these bridged tokens on the BNB Smart Chain, Fantom, Ethereum, and Avalanche blockchain networks will be impacted by this decision. However, Binance’s deposit page states that withdrawals of these tokens and deposits on other networks are still available.
Binance is not the only entity taking action in response to the unexplained downtime. The Fantom Foundation reportedly withdrew 449,740 MULTI ($2.4 million) from liquidity on the decentralized exchange SushiSwap. Furthermore, blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported multiple outflows worth $3 million associated with smart money accounts.
Speculation spread on Twitter that the Multichain team had been apprehended by Chinese authorities, allegedly resulting in $1.5 billion of smart contract funds being under their control. Cointelegraph reached out to Multichain for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
It is worth noting that one of Multichain’s investors is Binance’s venture arm. The cross-chain protocol successfully raised $60 million in a seed fundraising round led by Binance Labs in December 2021. Other prominent venture capital investors, including Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Primitive Ventures, DeFiance Capital, Circle Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures, HashKey, and Magic Ventures, also participated in the funding round.
