Multichain Token Crashes Over 20% Amid Reports of Users’ Funds Being Stuck

Users of the cross-chain router protocol Multichain have been reportedly experiencing delays in receiving their funds following an upgrade.

There have also been rumors about the arrest of the Multichain team, which is yet to be confirmed.

MULTI Sinks 24% in 24 Hours

Several Multichain users have complained about their funds being stuck in the protocol for as long as 72 hours. Part of the problem seems to stem from a backend upgrade, which the team said is taking longer than usual.

According to an operation update provided on May 23, Multichain said:

The upgrade of the back-end node is taking longer than expected. Most of the routes are working as usual, as some routes (Kava, zkSync, Polygon zkEVM) are suspended temporarily for now. All the affected transactions will arrive once the upgrade is complete.

Meanwhile, ongoing discussions on Multichain’s Telegram channel as of May 24 revealed that all but one router was undergoing an upgrade. One of the admins in the group said, “Only one router left in the upgrade progress. Other 6 routers work fine now,” with another one stating that the team was working on the final router and operations will be “back to normal once it is finished.”

However, Multichain’s token MULTI has fallen over 24% in the last 24 hours, from $7.09 to $5.39, according to Coingecko. The crash in the token’s value could be a result of panic selling from holders.

Multichain Team Allegedly Arrested in China

Lookonchain also reported that some investors have likely been selling their multichain tokens.

One address deposited 494,200 MULTI (valued at $2.75 million) to the crypto exchange Gate.io on May 24. Digital asset financial services group Hashkey also transferred $247,000 worth of MULTI to the same crypto exchange today.

Meanwhile, an address with the ENS name hwg.eth sold over 36,000 MULTI tokens to get $200,000 on May 23. Notably, Fantom Foundation also recently removed approximately 450,000 MULTI (worth $2.4 million) tokens from liquidity on SushiSwap.

Amid reports of delayed transactions and token price slump, there have also been rumors of the Chinese authorities arresting the Multichain project team and with over $1 billion in contract funds “under control.”

However, Multichain has neither confirmed nor refuted the ongoing rumors, but we shall give an update as this is a developing story.