TechFlow news: In early November last year, Andre Cronje returned to the Fantom project after a period of absence, driving the token's price up by 20%. However, he claimed he had never truly left.
Cronje said, "My departure from Fantom was only from a public perspective. At that time, there was too much negative coverage about me, and I thought it would negatively impact Fantom."
He added that he has been working with the Fantom Foundation since 2019, which has been nearly his full-time job. "You can ask anyone at the company—they all know I'm still there, still working day in and day out."
On the surface, Cronje left the Fantom Foundation in March 2022, reportedly abandoning his contributions to the DeFi space and cryptocurrency, which led to a drop in FTM's price at the time.
While no specific reason was given, Cronje has faced criticism multiple times in the past for his tendency to "test in production"—that is, deploying unaudited code while still building.
Cronje added that it was Fantom Foundation CEO Michael Kong who spent months persuading him to make his return public, a move he eventually agreed to, believing it would be better for the project.
