Llama Drama: DeFiLlama Ditches DL News After Mystery Buyers Snag the Brand 🦙

DeFiLlama has formally severed all ties with DL News after unidentified buyers acquired the outlet's website and X account, the analytics platform said in a July 1 statement. "New owners have taken over the @dlnews website and assets. We expect them to resume posting soon. They're no longer affiliated with DefiLlama in any way. We can't corroborate any information about outreach and no posts should be considered to be endorsed by us," the team wrote. Core developer 0xngmi went further, telling users not to trust anything published under the DL News name.

The split marks the end of a relationship that began in 2022, when DL News launched as the for-profit news arm of the open-source DeFi analytics platform tracking DeFi deposits. Tensions first surfaced publicly in March 2023, when 0xngmi threatened a fork over a LLAMA token plan the team opposed; the dispute was resolved within days, though the newsroom continued to operate independently. DL News director Paige Aarhus announced the outlet's closure on May 7, citing shrinking readership and AI-driven declines in search traffic, ending editorial operations before the asset sale.

DL Research, the publication's 2024 commercial arm, grew revenue by 270% in 2025 and crossed the seven-figure mark, according to DeFiLlama. 0xngmi said DeFiLlama attempted to purchase the brand after the shutdown to wind it down entirely but could not because the assets were held by Llama Corp, a Dubai-based entity, rather than by the analytics team. "Obviously I wouldn't have sold it but it was not owned by me. After dlnews shut down we even tried to purchase it as defillama just to fully close it, but it wasnt possible," 0xngmi wrote on July 2. The DL News site still lists Llama Corp in its footer and displays the closure notice.

The buyers have not been publicly identified. DeFiLlama, meanwhile, continues to operate as normal and recently drew user scrutiny for relisting Aster perpetual data, a sign of how closely the community watches the platform's neutrality.