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ACX Token Slides 10% as Accusations of DAO Manipulation Rock Across Protocol

The allegations, whether substantiated or not, appear to have shaken trader confidence.

By Shaurya Malwa|Edited by Parikshit Mishra
Updated Jun 27, 2025, 7:34 a.m. Published Jun 27, 2025, 7:11 a.m.
U.S. dollar (Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)

What to know:

  • Accusations of governance manipulation and insider trading have emerged against Across Protocol's ACX token, causing a 10% drop in its value.
  • The allegations suggest core contributors may have front-ran a Binance listing and still control the decentralized DAO, though the team denies these claims.
  • Co-founder Hart Lambur refuted the accusations, stating that ACX tokens are being used as intended to build and expand the protocol.

Accusations of governance manipulation and insider trading have rocked Across Protocol’s ACX token on Friday after well-followed X users alleged that core contributors front-ran a Binance listing and still control the supposedly decentralized DAO.

However, the team swiftly denied any such claims.

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Across Protocol’s token, ACX, is down 10% amid the drama. The allegations, whether substantiated or not, appear to have shaken trader confidence, with ACX seeing a spike in trading volume alongside the price drop, suggesting market participants are reacting swiftly.

Across co-founder Hart Lambur has called the accusations “categorically untrue” and denied all misdoings.

“Risk Labs was granted ACX tokens from the DAO to build the Across protocol,” he wrote in a Friday post. “This is standard practice for DAOs! Since the first grant passed (in October 2023), we shipped Across v3 and grew the protocol massively.”

“Since the second grant passed (in October 2024), we have built Across v4 with some incredible new technology (to be announced very, very soon), and we’ve hired brilliant new team members with these tokens (that vest over 4 years). We are using the ACX tokens exactly as intended,” Lambur added.

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