Multichain token price rallies 35% despite no update on team's whereabouts

The token price of the cross-chain protocol Multichain has rallied 35% in the last 24 hours, even though the protocol is still partially offline with no clear explanation.

When the reports about transaction issues first arose and rumors spread that the team may have been arrested in China, the protocol's native token fell from $8 and dropped as low as $3.30 within days. Yet over the last day, the token's price jumped to $5.18, before settling at its current price of $4.71.

It's unclear what caused the price rise, as there appears to be no update from Multichain on the whereabouts of the team. Multichain's VP of Strategic Partnerships, who goes by Mog, today said in the official Multichain Telegram group that he will "drop in news whenever I have one."

The price of MULTI has rallied despite no clear update. Image: CoinGecko.

In the project's Telegram and Discord channels, users are still asking for answers and questioning what the project's ominous "force majeure" tweet — used to explain why the protocol remains partially offline — really means.

In the project's Chinese Telegram channel, an admin by the name of Meng said that users need to "wait for Zhaojun to come back," seemingly in reference to his ability to sign transactions related to upgrading parts of the protocol. Zhaojun is the co-founder of the project, who has been silent during this time period (including to his associates and The Block).

Throughout the last week, various crypto entities have taken action to reduce exposure to the Multichain protocol, its native token and tokens issued through its protocol. These include the Fantom Foundation, Binance, Hashkey Group, Tron founder Justin Sun and Conflux network.