Cronje Blasts DeFi, Claims Most Protocols No Longer Decentralized

Andre Cronje, founder of DeFi platform Flying Tulip and creator of Fantom Network, has sparked debate in the crypto community by stating that most decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols are no longer truly decentralized.

Cronje made these comments during a recent Chain Reaction X Spaces show, where he argued that true DeFi needs to be decentralized, immutable, and without an intermediary. He claimed that this is not currently the case for many DeFi protocols, stating 'That statement isn't really true for pretty much any other protocols running today.'

Cronje has been raising these concerns for months, citing the need for circuit breakers and emergency controls to protect users from exploits. This comes as Total Value Locked (TVL) in DeFi has more than halved over the past 10 months, from $167 billion in early October 2025 to $75 billion at the time of writing.

The European Central Bank has also questioned whether decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are sufficiently decentralized, citing a March working paper that found top governance token holders controlled more than 80% of supply in each protocol. Cronje believes DeFi has departed from its inherent decentralization and moved towards 'onchain finance or open finance.'

Cronje remains optimistic about the potential for true innovation within some DeFi protocols, citing his own Sonic blockchain as an example of a fast and secure network.