In a series of unfortunate events, the Multichain protocol, a cross-chain router protocol, has state was left in a state of uncertainty following the arrest of its CEO, Zhaojun, on May 21, 2023. The arrest led to a series of operational disruptions, including the revocation of operational access keys to Multichain’s MPC node servers, which they were under Zhaojun’s personal control. control.

The Multichain team lost access to the servers and all operating funds as they were under Zhaojun’s control. Despite the challenges, the team managed to maintain project operations to the best of their ability through remaining access on some non-MPC servers that had not yet been revoked.

On May 30, the team informed the community about Zhaojun’s disappearance and the technical problems they were facing. However, the situation worsened when the assets of users blocked at MPC addresses were transferred to unknown addresses abnormally on July 7. Zhaojun’s sister, who had gained access to the cloud server platform, transferred the assets of the remaining users in the router group to EOA addresses controlled by her on July 9.

However, on July 13, Zhaojun’s sister was detained by the police, leaving the status of the preserved assets uncertain. As a result, the Multichain team was forced to cease operations due to a lack of alternative sources of information and operating funds.

In response to the large unauthorized withdrawals from Multichain on July 6, stablecoin issuers Circle and Tie froze more than $65 million in assets tied to the alleged Multichain exploit on July 8.

Blockchain analytics and security company Chainalysis described the July 6 withdrawals as a possible rug pull, suggesting it could have been an inside job. Despite these measures, the future of Multichain remains uncertain, and the team urges users to stop using the Multichain service.

On July 10, a report revealed that the Multichain Executor address had been draining anyToken addresses on many chains, resulting in the loss of more than $263,524.33 worth of tokens.