- Neel Somani denied the sexual harassment allegations against him
- Eclipse has also promised to share background information on all senior leaders
Eclipse founder and CEO Neel Somani will temporarily limit his public role at Eclipse Ethereum [ETH] scale resolution after sexual harassment allegations. Somani responds to the allegations of sexual misconduct commented,
“So I will temporarily reduce my role as public face for Eclipse. The senior leaders at Eclipse are well equipped to take on these responsibilities, and this will allow these conversations to unfold and the truth about these allegations to come to light.”
In a recent interview with The Block, Somani also made it clear that he has not stepped down as CEO. Instead, he only limits exposure to podcasts and panels.
Eclipse responds to FUD removal
Blackout is an adaptable roll-up that uses the Solana [SOL] Virtual machine to drive scaling and development on top of Ethereum. However, Eclipse allows developers to choose the L1 blockchain they want to use for security.
The company raised more than $65 million in Series A funding from notable venture capitalists (VCs) including Fenbushi Capital and Delphi Digital. The allegations against the CEO could strain relations between venture capital firms and Eclipse in general.
In fact, an executive at crypto fund Dragon Capital named that it did not invest in Eclipse after learning of Somani’s history of sexual harassment. The director claimed that he discouraged some VCs from joining Eclipse after the due diligence.
“When we were originally working on Eclipse, we heard rumors that @neelsalami, had a history of sexual harassment. We passed on the investment quite quickly.”
To save Eclipse from VC backlash and fend off further damning accusations, the company has issued a statement on the way forward. Part of the explanation read,
“We look forward to sharing more background and details on the senior leaders at Eclipse in the coming days and are confident we have a best-in-class team to reach new heights as a protocol.”
While this was a commendable but difficult call for the company, it remains to be seen how Eclipse will navigate public scrutiny and VC partners in the future.
Furthermore, it is not clear whether the planned launch of the L2 mainnet, scheduled for the second quarter of 2024, will be affected by the development.