Scroll, the zero-knowledge Ethereum L2 chain, is facing intense community backlash after abruptly dismantling its security council and scaling back DAO governance roles. The move, described by the project as a necessary operational adjustment, has ignited investor frustration following SCR's catastrophic 97% plunge from its October 2024 all-time high of $1.45. The token now trades around $0.042, with its market cap evaporating from $265 million to just $8 million in a dramatic six-month collapse.

Why is Scroll facing criticism?

The Scroll community turned on the project after its April 13 operational proposals to “dissolve the Security Council and transition protocol control to a Scroll Admin multisig,” permanently cut off several DAO contributor roles by April 30, and move to leaner “Operations and Accountability committees.”

The proposal claimed that keeping the security council was “no longer justified” based on the comparison of the council’s cost to its impact on the project’s wallet. That transition to a Scroll Admin multisig is expected within the next 10 days, with the approving council not expected to object. 

Cryptopolitan reported several fumbles around the time the token launched in 2024, including an allocation to Binance users that drew criticisms. The project’s fortunes have not improved much since then, capped off by this latest episode. 

Scroll has a little over $24 million locked in its DeFi protocols, a tiny fraction of its October 2024 record levels near $600 million.  

After raising over $80 million in funding, Scroll was generating under $500 in daily fees as of an early March Cryptopolitan report, but that number has since dropped to a lower baseline in recent days. 

A brief spike on April 7 to over $35,000 was attributed to several price adjustments by the Scroll team over a few days that led to overcharging users (mainly bots) by over $50,000. 

As of publication, the Scroll team has not addressed the issue despite persistent rumors that the issue occurred because Scroll might have been covering the tab to keep transaction costs low and support network activity. 

Which Scroll functions and roles will change?

Moving forward, the ScrollOwner contract, AgoraGovernor contract, and Timelock contracts will now be transitioned to the new Scroll Admin multisig address: 0xcca54B0916Cee2186b47E9709BEdcb7041A8F761.

The project will also shut its marketing operations, program coordination, accountability lead, and accountability operator roles by April 20, 2026. The “facilitator role (SEED LATAM)” is due for a Q2 2026 shutdown, while operations and accountability committees will be trimmed down to match the network’s scale.  

It wasn’t all criticisms for Scroll, though, as Boba Network, another Ethereum L2, wished the project best of luck after saying “security council isn’t as easy as people think.”

Scroll has made technical progress

While Scroll has been decimated in the economic KPIs, the project still has several claims to fame in the technical and performance aspects. For example, it is the first ZK chain to reach Stage  1 decentralization. 

In February, the project announced the acquisition of Honeypop, noting that it “puts core DeFi infrastructure under Scroll’s umbrella.” As part of the announcement, it unveiled the Scroll Swap AMM and a soon-to-be-launched Morpho-powered Scroll Lend lending market. 

The deal came after an early 2025 pivot, based on the idea that “chains need to maintain a baseline infrastructure that everything else depends on.”

Scroll also backed the launch of ChatterPay, which allows users to use crypto and interact with its blockchain while chatting with a WhatsApp bot. 

Its DCP 1 “State of Scroll” research report is expected to help the DAO and Foundation feel the pulse of its global ecosystem and build accordingly. 

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