Serum exchange rendered 'defunct' following the collapse of Alameda and FTX

Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Project Serum has notified its community that the collapse of its backers — Alameda and FTX — has rendered it “defunct”.

The team behind the project shared that “there is hope” in spite of its ongoing challenges because of the option available to “fork” Serum.

What’s next for @ProjectSerum
With the collapse of Alameda and FTX, the Serum program on mainnet became defunct.
As upgrade authority is held by FTX, security is in jeopardy, leading to protocols like @JupiterExchange and @RaydiumProtocol moving away from Serum.
— Serum (@ProjectSerum) November 29, 2022

According to the announcement, “A community-wide effort to fork Serum is going strong.” OpenBook, the community-led fork of the Serum v3 program, is already live on Solana with over $1 million daily volume, supported by continuous efforts to expand it and grow its liquidity.

“With Openbook’s existence, Serum’s volume and liquidity has dropped to near-zero,” Project Serum tweeted. Users and protocols are safer using OpenBook given unspecified security risks associated with the “old Serum code” which was compromised in the FTX hack.

When it comes to its SRM token, the DEX shared that the “future of SRM is uncertain,” with community members apparently divided on the subject. Some believe it should be used “for discounts,” while others say it should not be used at all given its exposure to FTX and Alameda.

On Nov. 12, Cointelegraph reported that FTX was hacked, with wallets tied to FTX and FTX US drained of $659 million.

Following the FTX hack, Solana’s developers forked the widely used token liquidity hub, Serum, after it was compromised in a series of unauthorized transactions. On Nov. 12, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko tweeted that developers who depend on Serum were forking its code after its upgrade key was compromised, adding that many “protocols depend on serum markets for liquidity and liquidations.”