Transactions stuck on Multichain blockchain bridge due to "force majeure"

The Multichain blockchain bridge, formerly known as Anyswap, encountered an apparent issue as users' funds were delayed for over 24 hours in getting to their destination. Some reported delays since as far back as May 21. The delay was blamed on a backend upgrade "taking longer than expected". Multichain later tweeted that "some of the cross-chain routes are unavailable due to force majeure, and the time for service to resume is unknown". They also announced that they would compensate affected users.

Meanwhile, rumors swirled that the Multichain team had been arrested by Chinese police, though there doesn't seem to be much corroborating evidence of this.

The issues and the rumors sparked a drop in token price of around 30%. Several large parties also appeared to distance themselves from the project and its token, including the Fantom Foundation, which withdrew 449,740 MULTI (~$2.4 million) in liquidity on SushiSwap.

On May 31, Multichain issued a statement that "we are currently unable to contact CEO Zhaojun and obtain the necessary server access for maintenance", and wrote that even more bridges were being impacted by the same issues as in the previous week.