Interview with Andre Cronje: Reasons for Leaving, Views on Fantom, DeFi, and Regulation

Written by: Revelo Intel

Compiled by: TechFlow

In this episode of "The Defiant," Camila Russo sits down with Fantom co-founder Andre Cronje to discuss DeFi, Fantom, regulation, and the challenges of becoming a niche celebrity.

Read on for more details.

Andre's Background

• Andre entered the space because he initially believed it was largely a scam. His first move was launching a code review blog to teach himself the technology, while also scrutinizing numerous projects that claimed to have solved key problems or breakthroughs.

• Andre was initially skeptical of the industry, and even today believes 99% of projects are junk. Yet, for that 1% of legitimate projects, he has remained in the space for five years.

• Whenever Andre has to interact with traditional systems—like banks, conventional regulations, or taxes—he is reminded of the luxury and freedom enjoyed by blockchain natives.

• Another issue is that tokens evolve much faster than the underlying technology, creating a significant market disconnect. This is primarily driven by greedy financial incentives.

• Andre believes this is more about the public nature of DeFi rather than its foundational technology. Even after stepping back, he hasn't stopped writing backend code and continues refining Primitive.

• Andre always communicates with the team. It took him a long time to realize there’s a tipping point beyond which one is no longer a core contributor.

Fantom

• Fantom launched its mainnet in 2018. At the time, the project achieved high performance but avoided aggressive marketing like many other teams. The only viable option then was an initial coin offering (ICO).

• Andre said limited resources led them to spend too much time pursuing the wrong areas, causing Fantom to disappear from view for a period.

• When DeFi gained popularity, Fantom’s advantages became clearer, emerging as the first blockchain with true finality—meaning all other existing blockchains at the time relied on the longest-chain rule.

• Fantom made major breakthroughs in quantum computing and significant progress in artificial intelligence, suddenly gaining the ability to break most cryptographic schemes used in blockchain technology.

• Theoretically, a machine equipped with quantum computing and AI enhancement could generate a new, longer Bitcoin blockchain.

• As DeFi grew increasingly popular, improvements in user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) became evident. Gas monetization allowed adaptive developers to earn rewards for gas spent on their contracts, providing them with a more sustainable revenue stream.

Comparison of blockchain-based applications with Web2

• Blockchain eliminates intermediaries—whether banks, lenders, or advertisers—and removes them from the equation.
• Over time, business use cases will become stronger.

Views on Regulation

• There are two types of regulation, often mixed together, including cryptocurrency regulation. FTX was a standard company operating at the intersection of crypto and should have been a regulated crypto firm.

• There's a difference between attempting to regulate decentralized cryptocurrencies versus centralized ones.

• This doesn't mean all anonymous actors are bad, but anonymity makes it easier for bad actors to infiltrate. Verification matters.

• The current approach is flawed—regulators are overreaching and pushing aside opportunities for future voices in the industry.

Development of DeFi

• Many claim DeFi is declining, but that’s not accurate. By certain metrics, growth has been linear, and across all indicators, DeFi is growing stronger.

• Access to capital has slowed, but Andre believes it will grow as more real-world assets enter the market.

• Real-world assets will become a narrative. It will happen, but only after regulatory clarity emerges.

• Traditional auditors must develop sufficient on-chain capabilities to incorporate data into their existing reports before people can see its large-scale impact.

• Some infrastructure is still lacking, and there’s substantial room for development in areas like futures and options.

• Andre proposed several infrastructures, but regrets that none were adopted.

• More money is now being used in stablecoins, enabling greater cross-border settlements.

• Blockchains still lack enough functionality to unlock next-generation applications. Only a few teams—like Avalanche, Fantom, and Solana—are actively improving layer-one protocols.

Q&A

Q: What prompted your departure as a public figure?

It relates both to being a public figure and to how inherently public this space is. In traditional finance, if something happens behind the scenes, you have the opportunity to handle it privately—such as discreetly contacting regulators to disclose issues. The hyper-public nature of blockchain is a major challenge because once something happens on-chain, everyone knows.

It's the combination of publicity and urgency—the highly public nature of these applications and blockchains drives all economic behavior. Don’t take feedback personally, and create alternative channels for it. Andre learned to distinguish what problems he needed to solve versus those others should address. Staying mentally balanced is difficult, and not everyone can survive it.

Q: Where do you see these applications fitting within the industry?

At the time, the only meaningful construction was financial primitives. He hopes to see games and social systems emerge within two years. Everything currently on the internet can be replicated in a decentralized world with different business models. Andre wants to see unique decentralized primitives that don’t yet exist. Blockchain has only begun to disrupt business models and hasn't yet realized its full potential.

Q: What would crypto look like if U.S. users couldn't easily access it?

Andre believes that with continued technological and accessibility improvements, crypto will become an unstoppable force.

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