With the CEO’s arrest, unauthorized asset transfers, and subsequent arrests, the MultiChain team was forced to halt operations due to lack of access to funds and servers.
Multichain, the blockchain technology firm, has closed operations after a tumultuous series of events starting with the arrest of its CEO, Zhaojun, on May 21, 2023. The incident has led to operational difficulties due to the seizure of Zhaojun’s personal devices, containing the keys to Multichain’s server access and financial assets.
In the past two days, the Multichain protocol has experienced multiple issues due to unforeseeable circumstances. The team has done everything possible to maintain the protocol running, but we are currently unable to contact CEO Zhaojun and obtain the necessary server access for…
— Multichain (Previously Anyswap) (@MultichainOrg) May 31, 2023
In a long tweet, Multichain laid out the details of why the firm was closing:
The Multichain service stopped currently, and all bridge transactions will be stuck on the source chains.
There is no confirmed resume time.
Please don’t use the Multichain bridging service now.
— Multichain (Previously Anyswap) (@MultichainOrg) July 7, 2023
Then, Zhaojun’s sister transferred the remaining user assets in the router pool to addresses under her control on July 9, presumably to safeguard them. Unfortunately, she was also taken into custody by the police on July 13, leaving the status of the assets she controlled unclear.
In light of the above events and due to a lack of funds and key operational information, MultiChain announced a halt to all operations on July 13. The team has requested GoDaddy’s assistance in taking down the company’s domain.