FTX-backed Serum (SRM) Claims It’s Defunct; Pushes Community Fork

After the dramatic collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange giant FTX — Serum (SRM), a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange funded by FTX, notified its 215,000 Twitter followers that the project is “defunct,” while also referring users towards a community-led fork of the project.

Possible Revival With Serum Fork

Serum, still has some glimmer of hope with its fork, called the OpenBook. The community-led fork is currently live on the Solana blockchain and is processing a daily volume of over $1 million. Whereas the volume and liquidity for Serum have now dropped to levels which is negligible or close to zero.

The team at Serum further stated that,

“With Openbook’s existence Serum’s volume and liquidity has dropped to near-zero. Users and protocols are safe using an alternative fork such as OpenBook, after finding out security risks on the old Serum code”

FTX Hack The Final Blow?

It is believed that the security of Serum’s code was compromised when the FTX exchange was hacked earlier this month for more than $500 million.

This is due to the fact that insiders at the FTX exchange were the only ones who had “update authorization” for the software’s underlying code. The FTX exchange, which is now defunct, relied on its decentralized counterpart Serum, for liquidity and trades.

Read More: Over $600 Million Transferred Out Of Wallets Following FTX Hack

As soon as the exploit was identified, the Serum’s code was unable to be securely updated in time, to address any potential vulnerabilities.

What does this mean for Serum?

Unfortunately, with Openbook's existence Serum's volume and liquidity has dropped to near-zero. Users and protocols are safe using an alternative fork such as Openbook, after finding out security risks on the old Serum code.

— Serum (@ProjectSerum) November 29, 2022

In response, Anatoly Yakovenko, one of the co-founders of Solana, together with a few other developers, proposed forking the code.

Mango Max, who is also the developer of the loan project Mango Markets, took the initiative to eventually fork the chain.

SRM Token To Be Shelved?

The firm also addressed the future of its native Serum (SRM) token, claiming it to be “uncertain” and that developers have suggested abandoning it because of its exposure to FTX and its sibling trading company Alameda Research.

However, there are still a few proposals where the community suggests it to be used for discounts and fees.