Neel Somani, Founder of Ethereum Layer-2 Blockchain Eclipse, has been replaced as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) due to accusations of sexual misconduct. Eclipse Labs announced Vijay Chetty, the company’s Chief Growth office (CGO), as the new CEO, taking over Somani’s responsibilities.

Ethereum L2 Eclipse Changes Leadership

Eclipse Labs is a software firm that “contributed to developing the first Ethereum layer-2 using the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM).” Per Neel Somani, “Eclipse is built to be Ethereum’s fastest layer-2, leveraging the best pieces of the modular stack available today.”

On Thursday, Eclipse Labs revealed that Vijay Chetty would be “effective immediately” elevated from his CGO position to become the company’s CEO. The new appointment came due to the “departure” of Somani, Eclipse’s Founder and former CEO.

In the X post, the company highlighted Chetty’s decade-long trajectory in the crypto industry, having held leadership positions at Uniswap Labs, dYdX Trading, and Ripple Labs. Furthermore, Eclipse’s team explained that the new CEO played a “critical role” in building the Ethereum-based project’s community, investors, and partner base.

The announcement failed to acknowledge the reason behind Somani’s departure. However, Eclipse’s team previously stated they took the allegations against its former CEO seriously, claiming to be committed to “maintaining the highest personal and professional standards.”

In March, Hack VC, a Web3 Venture Capital firm, co-led Eclipse’s $50 million Series A Funding alongside Placeholder VC. Due to their link to the company, the Venture Capital firm replied to the post, acknowledging the serious allegations.

We were deeply troubled to learn about the serious allegations made recently against @EclipseFND founder Neel Somani. We do not tolerate sexual harassment or misconduct in any form at Hack VC, and we hold our founders and portfolio companies to the same high standards. To be… https://t.co/2g5P7Bjqq3

— Hack VC (@hack_vc) May 16, 2024

The firm stated it does not tolerate sexual harassment or misconduct “in any form.” As a result, Hack VC revealed that their team had worked with other investors and Eclipse’s team to “correct the situation” since learning about the accusations, including urging Somani to resign from his position.

Crypto Community Calls Out Inappropriate Behavior

At the end of April, a member of the crypto community publicly called out Somani for his alleged inappropriate behavior against women. In the X post, user Beachmojito urged women to stay away from the Eclipse founder, sharing a telegram message of Somani seemingly “hitting up” someone.

Moreover, the user claimed having thought that Somani’s behavior was “open knowledge in the industry.” After his post, many women came forward to back up the accusations and share their experiences with the founder.

In the following days, stories of Somani allegedly grabbing women by the waist and pulling them toward him despite being physically and verbally rejected started to appear.

When he grabbed my waist and pulled towards him even after I said NO and pushed him away, I knew that this will happen one day. Thank you for speaking up ser. https://t.co/cDjYT3n7uv

— Jiwoo Jun (@jiwoo_jun) May 8, 2024

Other females in the industry shared how the founder seemingly invited them to dinners under pretenses, as the women believed the meeting was supposed to be business-related. Further allegations against the former Eclipse CEO continued to be shared, with many including a pattern of inappropriate touching without consent despite clear rejection.

Somani denied all allegations on May 10, claiming to have “never sexually assaulted or harassed any woman.” He stated he didn’t intend to minimize this ongoing issue by his “denial of these false allegations.” At the time, Somani announced he would temporarily reduce his role as Eclipse’s public face while he cleared his name.

Since the accusations, a vital conversation has opened: sexual harassment remains an issue in the industry that must be taken seriously.

Despite not being exclusive to the crypto community, the persistence of harassment and minimization of this behavior should always be called out. As a community member pointed out, advocating for respectful and professional conduct in all business interactions should be a priority.

The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has partnered with blockchain oracle Chainlink and several prominent banking institutions in the United States to conduct a successful pilot aimed at accelerating the tokenization of funds. 

The collaboration has not only paved the way for the adoption of blockchain technology in the traditional asset management sector but has also had a significant impact on the price of Chainlink’s native cryptocurrency, LINK, which has surged past the $14 threshold.

Major Asset Managers Join DTCC And Chainlink

The pilot, called Smart NAV, was developed by DTCC to explore the extension of its Mutual Fund Profile Service I (MFPS I), an industry-standard platform that transmits “Price and Rate” data, also known as “NAV data.” 

By leveraging Chainlink’s cross-chain interoperability and blockchain abstraction capabilities, the pilot aimed to investigate the potential of on-chain price and rate data as a key enabler for new initiatives, particularly in the realm of mutual fund tokenization.

To evaluate the industry value of a DLT-based price and rate dissemination solution, DTCC collaborated with asset managers, service providers, and distributors, including American Century Investments, BNY Mellon, Edward Jones, Franklin Templeton, Invesco, JPMorgan, MFS Investment Management, Mid Atlantic Trust, and State Street. 

On-Chain Data Delivery For Fund Tokenization

According to the announcement, the results of the pilot were positive. The collaboration between DTCC, the US banking institutions, and Chainlink reportedly showed that structured data can be delivered on-chain, enabling the embedding of foundational data into multiple on-chain use cases. 

This capability has far-reaching implications, including supporting brokerage portfolio applications and facilitating real-time, automated data dissemination. Moreover, Smart NAV aims to provide built-in access to historical data and simplify the relay of price and rate data through new interfaces for data consumption.

Furthermore, the pilot reportedly achieved several key milestones, including validating user interfaces and applications that leverage on-chain data, establishing automation of data routing through smart contracts for dynamic data management, and preventing future fragmentation through Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). 

Ultimately, the DTCC stated that the partnership with Chainlink has played a key role in the success of the Smart NAV use case. By providing an abstraction layer through its cross-chain interoperability capabilities, Chainlink has facilitated “seamless” transmission of data across multiple blockchains. 

This approach eliminates the need for DTCC to establish individual connections to each blockchain, mitigating costs and operational complexities while ensuring data accessibility and optimization.

As of the time of this press release, the LINK token has successfully surged above the $14.88 mark, experiencing a notable 6.8% increase in price since the initial announcement on Thursday. 

Data from CoinGecko indicates that the token’s trading volume has also seen a significant surge of 17% in the last hours, reaching a substantial figure of $400 million. 

However, for LINK to recover from its 72% losses from its all-time high of $52.70 reached in May 2021, it faces two key resistance levels as shown on the token’s daily LINK/USD chart above. 

These resistance walls are located at $15.18 and $17.8 respectively, before potentially moving towards the $20 mark. It remains to be seen whether the current bullish momentum will persist and further propel the price of LINK beyond these levels.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com