The Across Protocol team faces serious allegations of misappropriating approximately $23 million from their Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) treasury through allegedly manipulated governance votes, according to claims made public on June 27.
The Ethereum-based cross-chain bridge protocol stands accused of transferring funds to Risk Labs, a private for-profit company founded by the same team behind Across Protocol.
Web3 Advisor Drops Bombshell on Across Protocol Fraud
The allegations originated from Ogle, founder of Glue Net and advisor to Trump-affiliated World Liberty Financial (WLFI), who claimed the Across Protocol team orchestrated the transfer of 150 million ACX tokens (valued at $23 million) to Risk Labs under the pretense of “strategic investment” and “retroactive funding.”
According to Ogle’s analysis, the protocol’s co-founders and insiders allegedly manipulated governance proposals, circumventing the DAO’s democratic decision-making process to extract tokens from the treasury they were entrusted to safeguard.
Ogle contacted key figures, including Kevin Chan (Risk Labs treasurer) and Hart Lambur (Across Protocol CEO), both of whom he described as “very responsive.”
However, marketing head James Richard Fry was “almost completely unhelpful” and “dismissive” when approached about the allegations.
Despite his confidence in the findings, Ogle acknowledged that on-chain data analysis carries inherent risks of error, stating he had conducted extensive due diligence before making the allegations public.
Secret Wallets Exposed: How Insiders Allegedly Stole $23M in Broad Daylight
The controversy centers on two separate governance proposals. In October 2023, Kevin Chan publicly submitted a proposal requesting that 100 million ACX tokens (approximately $13.5 million at current market rates) be transferred from the DAO to Risk Labs.
The proposal was presented as a strategic investment in Across Protocol’s future, with explicit assurances that the tokens would not be sold for two years to address community concerns about potential market impact.
Source: Across ProtocolThe proposal appeared to have broad DAO support, but blockchain analysis allegedly revealed coordinated insider voting.
While Chan publicly submitted the proposal via his “KevinChan.Lens” address, he allegedly cast a massive “yes” vote from a separate “maxodds.eth” wallet, traced back to him through his Friend.tech account and family member addresses.
The voting effort extended beyond Chan. Team member Reinis FRP allegedly used millions of ACX tokens across multiple secret wallets, while the second-largest voting wallet, representing 14% of votes, was allegedly funded by founder Hart Lambur.
A year later, the team requested another $7.5 million in “retroactive funding.” Chan’s secret wallets again accounted for 44% of the “yes” votes.
Source: Across ProtocolThis second proposal raised additional concerns when team members disclosed in discussion forums that they had been selling token option agreements to “strategic investors” using tokens from the first proposal, effectively monetizing rights to the tokens before the two-year holding period expired.
Across Protocol Founder Deny Everything: ‘We Do Things the Right Way’”
Hart Lambur responded decisively to the allegations, categorically denying any wrongdoing.
“In no way has the Across team ‘extracted’ value from the DAO. That is so insane it’s hard to even respond to,” Lambur stated. “I’ve been building in this space for 6 years. Me and my team are some of the few long-term builders that do things the right way.”
The allegations have resonated within the cryptocurrency community. A founder and investor at Bless Network supported Ogle’s claims, thanking him for “exposing the rot in the system” and noting that such “deceptive value extraction via DAO happens all the time.”
The creator of the Ethereum game Lineabros Universe urged Ogle to investigate similar practices at Lido DAO, the team behind the popular liquid staking protocol.
Market Impact
The allegations have had a significant impact on ACX token holders. The token declined 11.63% on the day the allegations surfaced, extending its 30-day losses to 40..95%.
Currently trading at $0.1355, ACX has lost nearly all its value from its $1.74 all-time high reached seven months ago.
Source: CoinMarketCapThis pattern looks similar to recent incidents in the space. Two months ago, OM, the native token of the MANTRA blockchain project, lost more than 90% of its value in a single day amid similar allegations of insider misconduct, erasing over $6 billion in market capitalization.
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