Some employees of Bitgate’s New Blockchain, Morf, initially thought of the L2 network, which were as a potential future opponent for the base of the coinbase.
But sources familiar with the project told Blockworks that Morf was stabilized by internal dysfunction. Sources claim that since $ 20 million Seed growth In March of last year, team struggle, attractive expenses and a mysterious “Chhaya CEO” led the loss, delay and loss of direction.
Blockworks spoke with a dozen current and former employees, who were given an oblivion to share a clear details about being wrong within one of the most public stakes of Bittgate.
Start of morph
Exchange is the biggest app of Crypto. One way is that these digital assets are launched by launching their own blockchain to capitalize on their popularity.
First benance Launched BNB series in 2020. Coinbase launched the name of an atherium layer -2 in 2023. Crackon, OKX, and Gate.
These chains can be attractive. Base produced $ 76 million in GDP in 2024, according to the blockwork research.
It was in the context that a morph named L2 became a hot ticket, after the incubation by Bittgate, the 10th largest exchange was incubated by the exchange. Spot quantityBut instead of following a more classic startup model, where two co-founders come with the same idea, Morf saw two co-founders who did not know each other.
The team behind Morf was brought to Azeem Khan – who lives in the US and first was the head of influence in Guitcoine – and Cecilia Hasue, which is located in Singapore, according to its LinkedIn. HSUEH was the Chief Marketing Officer in the past and, in short, CEO of Crypto Exchange Famex. He was tapped as CEO of Morof, while Khan became the chief operational officer.
Things looked bright first. As Crypto Dhana began to raise, Morf raised $ 20 million in seed funding from the US-based venture firm Dragonfly. Other investors included Pantera, Maxi Group, Bittet’s Venture Arm Forecite Ventures and Spartan Group.
Bitgate and foresight did not return several requests to comment on morph. Dragonfly and Pantera refused to comment on arrival.
Morof’s mennet goes stay Last year late October. According to morph Block explorerL2 had about 16,000 transactions on Monday, May 12. To keep those numbers in perspective, according to a blockworks research dashboard, base average several million daily transactions.
The launch was only half the fight. The second major goal was to launch a token, former employees were remembered, but it is not yet physically.
Last month, morph Wish to, Those who have hit the so -called platinum NFT, “will achieve their position in the ecosystem in $ 500 million FDV evaluation with 50% token unlock in TGE.”
According to one person, the seed round had morphs on the $ 125 million evaluation in March 2024.
However, Layer -2 of Bittgate has experienced a turbulent year.
‘Ghost Founder’
As Morf staffed and tried to bring a working blockchain to the market, cracks came under its leadership.
The familiar people described the tension between Hsueh and Khan, who did not know each other before tapping as co-founders.
Khan refused to comment when he arrived by blockwork.
Bittet, which is not available in the US, has seen a strong growth in Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia in the last few years, According For company data. Morf initially targeted to reach users in the global south, which is not being served by other exchange blockchains, as co-founder Azeem Khan explained in a coindesk in a coindesk Interview Last year.
Strategically, Khan and Hasue were not always aligned according to many sources. While Khan talked about the emerging markets in the press appearance, those initiatives were slow to reduce physically, the former employees said. A team said that a team planned to be active in those markets was told that they would not get the budget.
Stranger still, the employees who spoke to the blockworks felt that neither Khan nor CEO Hasuh feels that they have always been to say the final on things.
An employee described Khan as a “founder of ghost” compared to a real co-founder, and said he did not see anything like this in his crypto career.
A lot of decision making power seemed to rest with the block chair, a co-founder and partner of the foresight ventures (an investor in the Bitts Venture Arm and Morof) as well as the block chair. Many confirmed that Bai was like a “Chhaya CEO”. Sources mentioned that they had inspected things like spending and company strategy.
Khan announced that he was leaving Morf in March, seeing in an X post, “Step down” is the best way for me. ” He has since Emerged As a co-founder of a separate blockchain named Miden.
According to many familiar people, the departure of Khan’s departure and lack of power to make independent decisions contributed.
HSUEH has stopped as CEO – although his power has moved forward internally in recent months, three people told blockworks.
Who is really in charge?
Almost all blockworks spoke to HSueh described, which had limited understanding of technical INS and outs of blockchain. Although this is not a condition for an executive to be a crypto-country, sources claimed that HSUEH was out of contact with the blockchain users and did not show interest in learning about technology, which felt that Morf had a clear strategic direction.
Instead, HSUEH was busy to increase its online appearance, the sources said. Three former employees asked to join with their positions. Others said HSUEH will give priority Announcements About Morphs on his personal account on the official account.
At one point, HSUEH took pictures of his feet on X to post.
It is not clear how much power HSUEH still holds, although a former employee described him as “Teflon”.
While he is listed as CEO in the company’s documents, the name of Foresight Ventures’ co-founder One Bai appears next to him on an internal organization chart shared with blockwork.
Neither HSUEH nor BAI returned emails or messages requesting the comments.
While Bai has taken more control in recent months – officially added to the company’s dull, familiar with three sources – others said that they had captured both Khan and Hasu before Khan’s departure. Officially, BAI is listed as an advisor in internal dull messages viewed by Blockwork.
Another internal dull message shared with blockwork requested the presence of BAI in the ecosystem and marketing team meetings.
deal or No deal?
In 2024, Morf was a big spander, four people said. Given, the company finalized an increase of $ 20 million.
But this expense included events with the K-Pop band triples, where Morf allegedly covered the group’s visit and housing, a source told the blockworks. An invitation on Lu.Ma, a popular website that has been planned by projects, launched the “special performance” by Triples in April last year. events Zircuit, Bitget, Morph, Foresight Wentures and Quantstamp were hosted.
Many sources discussed Morf to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on events at crypto conferences. In Singapore, in Tokeen2049, Morf hosted a full -day side event at the Artsisian Museum in Singapore, stated by sources. A lu.ma invite The program shows that the program was included in the choice of Vitallic Butterin, Stani Kulchov of Avara and Mo Sheikh of Aptos, as the main function with popular South Korean artist DJ Soda.
Large event expenses did not align with investment or returns on the lower line, another source noted. And, while the events were receiving money, Hasuh real trading deals seemed reluctant to greenlight, familiar people told the blockworks.
According to one source, the bright side of the company’s expenses was that Morf had initially compete with his employees.
Outside the events, it was discussed for a physical office in New York City, which ended at one place on the 77th floor of a World Trade Center, three sources told the blockworks.
The office is also shared with foresight and blocks, although it is not clear who is on the lease.
According to several sources, on behalf of the developer, Morf once paid more than $ 200,000 to a team of developers. Since the code of Uniswap is an open source, a former employee realized that the project is overped for dex, known as Bulbasavap. Bulbasavap currently according to Defilama, the total value is approximately $ 93 million, around the 200th largest dex by that metric.
‘Dark Arts’
The burn rate of the morp may be offset by a planned series A Fundrase, but a fresh funding round is not yet physical.
“We’re looking for our next round,” HSUEH said Interview With the Web3TV in September, given that “it is very expensive to run a series,” and the company was looking to increase its headcon.
However, familiar people said that there were tension around a series A before Khan’s departure. Bai, acquainted with two people, said, pushed to morph to increase another round.
The blockworks was unable to determine the current status of range A.
Even without picking up, the blockworks familiar with a source reported that the morp is not yet out of the money, and it is still supported by the Bittgate.
Morf did not return several requests for the comment.
Meanwhile, morph has some trouble in maintaining talent. A former employee said that it is facing the “crazy zodiac” of the turnover from departure to retrenchment. Some employees have also cut salary, others noted.
Many employees said that they did not get a token contract. According to a source, Morf tried to force some employees, who had received a contract to sign new people in May last year, which would have changed their inherent period.
Another source told the blockworks that the departure has terminated some teams, and some dull channels have no activity. Despite the difficulties, Morf still planned to launch his token by the end of this year, said one person.
For investors, morph’s savings grace can be a connection with grace bitegate, which may yet be eager to list the upcoming tokens of the morph at the time of launch.
A former employee stated that the bitegate understands the “dark arts” of trading facilities around the token, which could have suspected value.
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