Sonic founder reveals SEC’s harassment campaign behind his departure from DeFi

Sonic Founder and DeFi developer Andre Cronje says he left decentralized finance (DeFi) in 2022 due to the SEC’s harassment. He explained that the constant barrage of threatening letters, each introducing a new line of attack, ultimately drove him to step away from the DeFi space.

He, however, believes that with Gary Gensler, the former chair of the SEC gone, the commission will take a more pro-crypto stance; thus, he feels the need to share his story and experience.

Cronje says the SEC drained his time and resources, forcing him to leave his DeFi projects

Andre Cronje released Yearn Finance in January 2020; nonetheless, he claims he neither sold any tokens nor profited from the project in any way. He also maintained that he did nothing to violate any country’s securities laws.

In 2021, he introduced another DeFi initiative, Keep3r, following the same approach—no token sale and no gains. 

That same year, he received his first letter from the SEC. In the letter, the commission inquired about Cronje’s Yearn Finance profits, the investors involved, and the identities of those receiving profits. Cronje claims to have provided all the requested information, saying it took him roughly two weeks to compile what the commission needed.

The SEC then quickly followed with another letter, asking how he developed all his projects, which even required Cronje to seek external legal help to draft a response. After that, the commission still kept sending him inquiry letters on his projects even though he was not even a US citizen and had only visited the US once to attend a conference.

Cronje claimed that with every letter, the SEC focused on a new angle of attack and obliged him to spend weeks and even months compiling information. 

He says the SEC wasted his time and resources, and he even had to halt any work on his research and development projects and focus entirely on the legal battle the SEC had plagued him with.

However, after two years of going back and forth with the commission, he decided to pause on public DeFi projects. 

Meanwhile, he continued researching tradeFi and regulatory positioning when he stepped away and has been working on new DeFi initiatives privately, which he intends to launch soon.

Andre Cronje expects the SEC to take a more pro-crypto stance with Gensler gone

Andre Cronje believes that with a new SEC chair, the commission will take a different and friendlier stance. He claims the commission had previously warned him not to go public or the persecution would increase.

Cronje now sees that with Gary Gensler out of the picture, the SEC will not torment him as before, insisting it’s also one of the reasons he gained the courage to share his past confrontations with the commission. 

Cronje is not the only one pleased with Gensler’s resignation. Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss, in November, remarked:

You are a disgrace who forever tarnished the reputation of the SEC. That’s your legacy.

Tyler Winklevoss

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban even shared a link to Leonard Cohen’s song ” Hallelujah” after Gensler’s resignation before deleting it.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer even commented, “Good riddance,” on X, not hiding his disdain for Gensler’s previous actions.

Cryptopolitan Academy: Are You Making These Web3 Resume Mistakes? - Find Out Here