Fantom (FTM) Foundation secures default judgment against Multichain Foundation 

The Fantom (FTM) Foundation has won a significant legal battle against the Multichain cross-chain protocol in the High Court of Singapore.

The default judgement granted by the court authorizes the liquidation of Multichain Foundation’s assets, to enable Fantom Foundation to recover its $122 million it lost during the Multichain Fantom bridge exploit in July 2023.

In a blog post dated March 4, Fantom Foundation disclosed that on Jan. 30, the Honorable Registrar Tan Boon Heng of the General Division of the High Court of Singapore issued a default judgment ruling in favour of the project, retroactively effective from November 30, 2023.

This ruling represents a significant advancement in the effort to reclaim assets lost in Multichain’s Fantom bridge protocol last July, which total $122 million.

Additionally, the Fantom Foundation is actively pushing for the liquidation of Multichain Foundation, to expedite the recovery of the exploited funds. The default judgment not only validates Fantom’s request but also signifies a crucial milestone in addressing the situation.

The exploit of the Multichain Fantom bridge resulted in the loss of over $210 million in assets across various chains, including Fantom, Ethereum, BNB, Cronos, Polygon, Arbitrum, zkSync, Optimism, and Moonbeam. The Fantom ecosystem bore approximately one-third of those losses.

Following unsuccessful attempts to engage with the former directors and key personnel of the Multichain Foundation, Fantom took legal action against them for breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentations leading to Fantom’s losses.

According to a statement in the blog post, Fantom clarified that it holds no responsibility or liability for the actions of third-party infrastructure partners.

In the coming months, Fantom aims to progress the matter until a liquidator is appointed. The foundation will provide all relevant knowledge and investigative material to support the liquidator’s efforts in asset recovery.

In early 2024, Fantom strategically lowered the minimum staking requirements for validators from 500,000 FTM to 50,000 FTM. This adjustment aimed to boost network participation and accessibility for validators. 

Forecasts for Fantom’s price have been bullish with projections indicating potential growth over the forthcoming years. At the time of writing, Fantom (FTM) is trading at $0.66, representing an over 90% price increase in the last 30 days.