Across Protocol Team Accused of Withdrawing $23 Million from DAO, ACX Token Plummets Over 10%

The price of the Across Protocol (ACX) token has fallen by over 10%. This decline followed allegations against the team of manipulating the DAO and engaging in insider trading prior to its listing on Binance.

As of the time of writing, the asset is trading at $0.13, reflecting a 10.1% drop over the past day, according to CoinGecko.

Ogle, the founder of the Glue platform, claimed that the Across Protocol team withdrew ACX tokens worth about $23 million from the treasury. He alleged that these funds were directed towards their “private commercial company” Risk Labs. According to him, the team supposedly used controlled wallets to vote on “favorable” proposals without disclosing their interests.

Hart Lambur, CEO of Risk Labs, denied these accusations.

He stated that Risk Labs is a non-profit organization registered in the Cayman Islands, not a private company. Lambur claimed that the grants were allocated for protocol development and team expansion, rather than personal enrichment.

Lambur further mentioned that employees voted from their personal wallets, which were not concealed. He also pointed out that one of the contentious proposals was passed unanimously, and no objections were raised during the seven-day voting period.

Later, Brian Pellegrino, the founder of LayerZero, suggested that Lambur might have been involved in insider trading.

He alleged that the CEO of Risk Labs purchased ACX shortly before its unexpected listing on Binance in December 2024.

Lambur referred to this as “disgraceful behavior from a competitor.”

“We had no inkling that Binance would list ACX. We found out about it on Twitter just like everyone else. The exchange can confirm this,” he stated.

Lambur confirmed that he bought the tokens from a public wallet to support the project and still holds them. He explained that the team was in talks with Binance in early 2024, but communication ceased several months before the listing. He accused Pellegrino of libel driven by competition.

It is worth noting that in May 2024, the teams from Uniswap Labs and Across Protocol proposed a new industry standard, ERC-7683, for interoperability.