- $23M misappropriation allegations trigger major ACX token crash.
- Governance votes allegedly manipulated by insiders for personal gain.
- CEO denies wrongdoing; community demands more DAO transparency.
Across Protocol is facing heavy criticism after allegations surfaced accusing its core team of misappropriating $23 million in decentralized funds. The claims have led to a sharp decline in the price of ACX, the project’s native token.
ACX price is currently at $0.1342, marking a 10% drop in 24 hours and a 40% decline over the past month. The token has lost over 90% of its value since peaking at $1.69 in Dec 2024.
Across Protocol Under Scrutiny for Token Transfer Controversy
The controversy began on June 27 when Ogle, a pseudonymous blockchain analyst and founder of Glue, shared detailed allegations on X.
Ogle alleges that Across Protocol executives, such as lead developer Kevin Chan and CEO Hart Lambur, were secretly advocating two governance proposals that served the interest of their own affiliated organization, Risk Labs.
These proposals in the amount of 150 million ACX tokens supposedly redirected large amounts of DAO funds to their company, without introducing the appropriate transparency there.
Across Protocol Team Accused of Manipulating DAO Votes
According to Ogle, Risk Labs, which is closely linked to Across Protocol, received the tokens through two separate governance votes. The initial vote, adopted in October 2023, sold 100 million ACX on the grounds of advancing future development.
These days, the team has guaranteed the community that these tokens will not be sold out in less than two years.
But shortly following the vote, Risk Labs was said to have sold token option agreements to external interested parties. A second vote later approved an additional 50 million ACX, labeled as retroactive funding.
As per the analysis of Ogle, this was a vote that was made possible because insiders through the control of wallets that guaranteed quorum in its vote. The absence of their presence in the proposal would have caused a probable failure.
On the one hand, critics think that such actions contradict the principles of decentralized governance and undermine trust among the members of society. It is expected that the votes were deceptively shown as community-based when it was run in the background.
TLDR: Across Protocol/Bridge ($ACX) team used secret votes to extract ~$23m from the Across DAO’s treasury for their own private company’s benefit.
Background: I’ve many times posted about DAOs that are DAOs “in name only” – that is, organizations that pretend to be run by “the…
— ogle | glue.net (@cryptogle) June 26, 2025
Across Protocol Executives Respond to the Allegations
Hart Lambur, founder of both Risk Labs and Across Protocol, responded publicly to the claims. He rejected the accusations, stating that Risk Labs is a nonprofit entity incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
He emphasized the company has no shareholders and operates under fiduciary obligations. Lambur also shared incorporation documents in defense of the company’s legitimacy.
Although the denial is valid, there is an apprehension of future sell pressure on ACX, particularly by holders who do not know about these internal dealings. The event has brought up larger issues on transparency and accountability within DAO structures of governance.
