Serious allegations have surfaced against the Across Protocol team, claiming they misappropriated around $23 million from their Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) treasury through allegedly manipulated governance votes. These claims came to light on June 27.
The Ethereum-based cross-chain bridge protocol is accused of funneling funds to Risk Labs, a for-profit entity established by the same team responsible for Across Protocol.
Web3 Advisor Exposes Allegations Against Across Protocol
The accusations were raised by Ogle, the founder of Glue Net and advisor to the Trump-linked World Liberty Financial (WLFI). He contended that the Across Protocol team facilitated a transfer of 150 million ACX tokens, valued at approximately $23 million, to Risk Labs under the guise of “strategic investment” and “retroactive funding.”
Ogle’s analysis suggests that the co-founders and insiders associated with the protocol manipulated governance proposals, undermining the DAO’s democratic decision-making process in order to access tokens from the treasury that they were supposed to protect.
TLDR: Across Protocol/Bridge ($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
In his inquiry, Ogle reached out to significant figures such as Kevin Chan, the treasurer at Risk Labs, and Hart Lambur, CEO of Across Protocol. He described both as being “very responsive.” However, he found James Richard Fry, the marketing head, to be “almost completely unhelpful” and “dismissive” regarding the allegations.
While Ogle has confidence in his findings, he admitted that on-chain data analysis can contain errors, emphasizing he conducted thorough due diligence before making these claims public.
Governance Proposals and Alleged Insider Activity
The controversy revolves around two separate governance proposals. In October 2023, Kevin Chan presented a proposal requesting a transfer of 100 million ACX tokens, valued at roughly $13.5 million, from the DAO to Risk Labs.
This proposal was framed as a strategic investment in the future of Across Protocol, with assurances that the tokens would not be sold for a period of two years to alleviate community concerns about possible market repercussions.
Source: Across Protocol
Although the proposal appeared to have significant backing within the DAO, blockchain analysis reportedly uncovered evidence of coordinated voting among insiders.
While Chan submitted the proposal through his “KevinChan.Lens” address, he allegedly cast a substantial “yes” vote from another address, “maxodds.eth,” which was traced back to him via his Friend.tech account and family-related addresses.
The alleged voting manipulation extended to team member Reinis FRP, who purportedly utilized millions of ACX tokens across various hidden wallets. Notably, the second-largest voting wallet, which represented 14% of votes, was allegedly funded by founder Hart Lambur.
A year later, the team sought an additional $7.5 million under the designation of “retroactive funding.” Chan’s private wallets again accounted for a significant 44% of the votes classified as “yes.”
Source: Across Protocol
Concerns intensified when team members discussed in forums that they had been selling token option agreements to “strategic investors” using tokens from the first proposal, effectively monetizing rights to the tokens prior to the expiration of the two-year holding period.
Across Protocol Founders Respond Firmly to Allegations
In response to these serious accusations, Hart Lambur has categorically denied any malfeasance.
I am the founder of Across. The allegations in here are categorically untrue and I will vigorously defend our protocol and our team.
In no way has the Across team "extracted" value from the DAO. That is so insane it's hard to even respond to.
I've been building in this space…
— Hart Lambur (,) (@hal2001) June 27, 2025
According to Lambur, the assertion that the Across team has “extracted” value from the DAO is preposterous. He declared, “I’ve been building in this space for six years. My team and I are among the few long-term builders who conduct operations ethically.”
The allegations have sparked considerable discussion within the cryptocurrency community. One founder and investor at Bless Network voiced support for Ogle’s claims, expressing gratitude for “exposing the rot in the system” and noting that such “deceptive value extraction via DAO occurs frequently.”
A creator from the Ethereum game Lineabros Universe urged Ogle to extend his investigation to similar practices at Lido DAO, which is behind the popular liquid staking protocol.
Market Reaction to the Allegations
The allegations have significantly affected holders of the ACX token. Upon the emergence of the claims, the token saw an 11.63% drop, extending its losses over the past month to approximately 40.95%.
Currently trading at $0.1355, ACX’s value has drastically diminished from its all-time high of $1.74, recorded just seven months ago.
Source: CoinMarketCap
This decline follows a recent trend within the sector. Two months prior, OM, the native token of the MANTRA blockchain project, plummeted by over 90% in a single day due to similar allegations of insider misconduct, wiping out over $6 billion in market capitalization.
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