Jesse Powell, chief executive of the U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has lashed out at the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector in the aftermath of Mondayâs $24 million arbitrage exploit of Harvest Finance.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Powell said he would ânot acceptâ DeFi projectsâ attempts at âexternalizing the costâ of âhasty recklessâ rollouts.
âStop f**king up your bullshit DeFi scams and expecting exchanges to bail you out,â Powell said. âInvest in audits, insurance and please [do your own research].â
The comments come after several DeFi projects have suffered some form of an exploit or major management failure, while some have opened to investors with faulty or negligible audits of their code.
At the end of September, gaming protocol Eminence Finance suffered an exploit that saw $15 million-worth of DAI drained while still in testing.
The same month, DeFi project SushiSwap suffered a major blow when its pseudonymous creator âChef Nomiâ made off with the development fund, prompting a 73% crash in its SUSHI token. Chef Nomi did eventually hand back the $14 million worth of ether (ETH) and apologized to affected investors.
Still, the incident highlighted the danger of placing trust, and money, in projects run by unknown individuals.
Also in September, DeFi lending protocol bZx fell victim to its third exploit of the year after a flaw in its code allowed someone to make off with $8 million in crypto.
Despite all this, the DeFi sector is still drawing investors seeking yield, reaching a new milestone of $12.45 billion in total value locked up in smart contracts on Oct. 25.
That figure dropped by about $1.15 billion after Mondayâs exploit of Harvest, and now stands at $11.3 billion, according to DeFi Pulse.
Itâs not clear why Powell suggested exchanges are having to âbail outâ DeFi failures. CoinDesk reached out to clarify but did not receive a reply by press time.
See also: So Now Theyâre Hacking DeFi Protocols Before Theyâve Even Launched?