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Neel Somani, founder of Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Eclipse, has left his role as CEO amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Eclipse Labs announced on May 16 via X that Vijay Chetty would take over as CEO, replacing Somani.
The company did not provide a reason for Somani’s departure in their announcement.
Operational update on behalf of Eclipse Labs: "Effective immediately, Vijay Chetty will be named CEO of Eclipse Labs, taking over for Neel Somani who is departing. Chetty will be elevated from Chief Growth Officer and will assume all responsibilities of CEO.
— Eclipse 🌑 (@EclipseFND) May 16, 2024
Eclipse is Ethereum’s fastest layer-2 solution. It uses the Solana Virtual Machine to enhance privacy, security, and decentralization.
Somani pleads not guilty
Vijay Chetty, previously Eclipse’s chief growth officer, has held leadership roles at Uniswap Labs, dYdX Trading, and Ripple Labs. He also has investment experience at BlackRock.
On May 9, Neel Somani said he was “temporarily reducing” his role as the public face of Eclipse due to “serious allegations about sexual misconduct” made against him on X, which he has denied. Somani stated he “never sexually assaulted or harassed any woman” and intended to clear his name and defend himself.
Eclipse responded to the allegations with a statement. It said the firm takes such claims seriously and emphasized the importance of truth. The company completed a $50 million Series A funding round led by Hack VC and Placeholder in March.
Community speaks up
Hack VC, in a May 16 post on X, expressed its distress over the allegations against Somani.
The firm said it worked to “correct the situation, including urging Neel to resign,” and was pleased to see the resignation take place. Hack VC emphasized its zero-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment or misconduct and stated that the alleged behavior was “unacceptable, full stop.”
In a May 10 post on X, Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner of crypto VC firm Dragonfly Capital, said his firm declined to invest in Eclipse after discovering a history of sexual harassment allegations against Somani during their due diligence process.
Qureshi noted that if such information had been discovered with minimal diligence, the actual investors would have likely been aware of it as well.
The post CEO of Ethereum L2 Eclipse replaced amidst allegations of sexual misconduct appeared first on Invezz
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