Internal disagreement over the launch of a token has led to a splintering of DefiLlama.
A group of disgruntled employees are accusing the project’s founders of moving to launch a token without their support prompting a fork.
A new website has since been launched amid an internal scramble to placate disgruntled employees.
DefiLlama was in the eye of the storm as the project underwent a sudden split triggered by a potential token launch.
Total value locked (TVL) aggregator platform DefiLlama was forked over the weekend after one of the project’s lead developers 0xngmi accused its founders of planning to launch a token that failed to represent the interest of employees. 0xngmi went on to direct users to a new website (llama.fi) and a new Twitter handle that had garnered over 9,000 followers at press time.
The new website bore striking similarities to the original DefiLlama site but failed to include the platform’s news website and LlamaNodes, its infrastructure service.
“DefiLlama is undergoing a hostile takeover,” wrote 0xngmi. “There is an ongoing attempt to launch a token that does not represent us. We don’t want to be associated with it.”
However, a message on DefiLlama’s telegram group claimed that 0xngmi and other employees under his banner had gone rogue while spreading false rumors of a hostile takeover.
“Oxngmi and a few team members have gone rogue, they are actively looking to seize DefiLlam IP and community while inaccurately claiming the rightful owner to be doing a hostile takeover,” read the Telegram message.
Insider reports reveal that the founders are pulling all strings to resolve the dispute behind closed doors, but it remains unclear if their efforts will breed any success. As the drama brewed, fears that DefiLlama had been hacked percolated underneath, with both parties clarifying that the debacle was centered on solely a token disagreement.
The great divide
Community members have rallied to both warring factions in support of their actions, with one side supporting the launch of a token to support the project’s revenue base.
However, others have criticized the planned token launch to be a major distraction to DefiLlama, while others described the move as being a stain on the project’s reputation.
“If the token was launched, there would really be no going back,” said one community member. “It would stain DL’s reputation forever and kill everything they’ve worked so hard to build over the years.”
Others claim that those against the move will be forced to raise money via advertisements or a token launch to keep up with the expenses of running their fork, saying it is “easy to be ideological when you aren’t paying the bills.”
