The past few months have exposed a side of the crypto industry rarely seen during bull markets. Since Bitcoin retreated from its all-time high in October 2025, financial performance has deteriorated, hiring has slowed, layoffs have become widespread, and funding rounds that once closed in weeks have stretched into months or vanished altogether.
Across the industry, networks, projects, and startups are quietly shutting their doors, while crypto-focused venture capital activity has cooled to levels reflecting much greater caution than confidence.
The shutdowns span every corner of the industry. The list includes exchanges, Layer 1 (L1) and Layer 2 (L2) blockchains, wallets, $NFT platforms, DAO tooling companies, and blockchain games. The cited reasons are equally diverse: security vulnerabilities, rejected licensing applications, unsustainable tokenomics, market-making scandals, and in some cases, teams simply stating their product never found its audience.
Exchanges and Trading Platforms
BitMEX, a derivatives exchange co-founded by Arthur Hayes in 2014, announced on July 23 that it would cease operations on September 23 at 04:00 UTC. The exchange, a pioneer in crypto perpetual swaps, cited a strategic review rather than a specific trigger. AscendEX suspended trading on July 1 and confirmed its shutdown on July 11, citing a failed attempt to obtain an EU MiCA license, a broken liquidity partnership, and adverse market conditions.
Two days ago, Bitcoin.com News reported that BitMart has begun a phased shutdown of its global trading platform—a process typically taking weeks as client withdrawals, open position closures, and operational obligations are handled gradually. The exchange cited operational conditions, the general market environment, and its long-term strategic direction as reasons for the decision, without providing details beyond this brief explanation.
Odos, a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator, stated on July 23 that it would cease all services by July 30, giving no reason. Luck.io, a Solana-based casino, on April 24 urged users to withdraw funds immediately amidst disputes over its fairness claims and ties to the Rollbit exchange.
Bankruptcies
Movement Labs, developer of the Movement L1 blockchain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 21 after a market-making partner sold about 66 million MOVE tokens post-listing, triggering investigations and a price crash. Additionally, on March 15, institutional trading platform Blockfills filed for Chapter 11 after a liquidity crisis linked to the February 2026 crypto market crash left its liabilities exceeding assets by $100 to $500 million. Former Bitcoin mining pool operator Poolin also filed for Chapter 11 protection this month, another high-profile casualty of the crisis.
Layer 1 and Layer 2 Blockchains
A number of infrastructure projects shut down after concluding their networks lacked demand. Powerloom's founders ordered validators to power down nodes by June 16 after a strategic review, and the mainnet fully ceased by July 21, despite five years of development.
On June 10, a year after launch, Botanix wound down its Bitcoin-L2 Spiderchain, citing insufficient demand for Bitcoin-based DeFi solutions. The same day, after two years, Hyli shut down its zero-knowledge blockchain network. Sophon closed its zkSync-based L2 in late June after the chain, which raised about $60 million, attracted only 100-200 users daily and generated roughly $30 in daily fees; the team stated it would refocus on building on Base.
On June 15, Swell terminated its L2 Swellchain to redirect resources to a new product called Faro. On March 26, Milkyway closed its Celestia-based staking chain, citing low demand in both the Celestia and DeFi sectors. Mint Blockchain, an L1 for real-world assets, ceased operations on April 17 without a reason, giving users until October 20 to withdraw funds. Also, Polygon's zkEVM sequencer beta ended operations on July 1 as planned.
DeFi Protocols
The Radiant Capital community voted to liquidate its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and halt development on June 1, roughly 20 months after a $50 million exploit from which the protocol stated it could not safely recover. Ionic Protocol suspended all operations on June 18 due to the ongoing fallout from a 2025 hack.
Carrot Finance, a Solana lending protocol, ceased operations on April 30 after an $8 million loss linked to the Drift Labs exploit rendered its reserves insolvent. Step Finance shut down on February 24 after a January 31 hack drained roughly $40 million from its treasury; related platform Remora Markets, a tokenized perp contracts platform, closed the same day and began reimbursing holders.
Polynomial, a derivatives exchange, force-closed all positions on February 18 after its hybrid order book/automated market maker model failed to attract liquidity; full termination followed on March 3. Seamless Protocol reported its leveraged token products on Base failed to gain traction and scheduled a June 30 shutdown, proposing to distribute remaining funds to token holders.
Everclear, a cross-chain liquidity protocol handling up to $500 million in monthly volume, ceased operations on May 21, concluding it could not build a sustainable revenue model. The Angle Protocol community agreed to liquidate its EURA and USDA stablecoins over about a year, with 1:1 redemption available until March 1, 2027.
Ionic, a DEX from Loopring and other DeFi products, and Ventuals—a Hyperliquid-based perp platform allowing vHYPE holders to withdraw staked funds plus yield—also ceased operations during this period, alongside Dango—a perp DEX and L1 that halted trading on July 29 and will close its chain by August 13, seeing no path to profitability.
Wallets
Security vulnerabilities led to several wallet closures. Secondfi, a Cardano-based wallet, announced its shutdown on July 22 after attackers stole 16.1 million ADA worth about $2.4 million in June. Ctrl Wallet, formerly XDEFI, set a closure date of August 3 after a vulnerability discovered on June 23 targeted Cardano-based wallets in its system.
Xenea gave users 72 hours to export private keys before terminating its multichain wallet on July 9. Leap Wallet confirmed on April 2 it would cease operations on May 28 and recommended Cosmos users export seed phrases and migrate to other platforms. Magic Eden removed its wallet app from app stores on April 1 and fully decommissioned it by May 1 to focus on its core $NFT marketplace business.
$NFT, Gaming, and Other Platforms
Foundation, an $NFT marketplace, closed on April 15 after a planned sale to Blackdove fell through. Intergaze, a Cosmos-based $NFT chain, gave users 14 days to withdraw assets before moving remaining ones to Stargaze. Pudgy Party, a mobile game from Pudgy Penguins, will close on July 14 as the company redirects resources to its new project, Pudgy World.
Fishing Frenzy, with about 10 million installs and $1 million in revenue, will close on June 25 after its developer stated the game never found a sustainable product-market fit. Gensokishi Online, a Polygon-based MMORPG, shut down on April 30 after monthly losses reached roughly 8 million yen. Pixel Heroes Adventure studio disbanded entirely on April 15, laying off all staff.
Fantasy.top—an onchain fantasy sports card service—and Dmail—a decentralized email service citing high infrastructure costs and weak monetization—also ceased operations during this period. Zapper—a seven-year DeFi portfolio tracker—will close on August 3 after concluding its business model no longer justified continued operation.
DAO and Analytics Tools
Tally, a DAO management platform, announced its closure on March 17 after six years. CEO Dennison Bertram stated that softer SEC rule enforcement under the current administration made on-chain governance optional for many projects, leading to a collapse in demand for the tool. Syndicate, backed by A16z, ceased operations on May 21 after five years amid waning interest in new rollup networks.
Parsec, an on-chain analytics platform partly funded by Galaxy Digital, shut down on February 19, citing a challenging competitive landscape, and promised subscription refunds. Slingshot, a DEX aggregator, began winding down in late January and fully closed on February 28 due to low traffic. Entropy, a self-custody startup that raised $25 million in 2022, closed in January after repeated pivots failed to secure further funding.
Legend, a wallet and DeFi aggregator, set a closure date of July 12 after its co-founder stated the product attracted an audience but never reached sustainable scale. Yupp, an AI model feedback platform, closed on March 31, lasting less than a year, explaining that rapid AI model improvement made its crowdsourced service obsolete.
Soundness, a quantum-resistant blockchain project, ceased operations on June 18, stating the industry simply does not prioritize quantum-resistant security. Satori, a decentralized perpetual exchange (DEX), wound down by July 16, citing prolonged adverse market conditions. A number of other projects were also reported to have closed or paused without public announcement detailing terms or reasons.
What This Points To
This list points to three recurring pressure factors. Security vulnerabilities led to the closure of at least half a dozen projects—from the $40 million Step Finance hack to Cardano-related incidents affecting Secondfi and Ctrl Wallet. Regulatory hurdles played a direct role for AscendEX, which failed to obtain a MiCA license, and an indirect one for Tally, whose founder linked the shutdown to softer SEC enforcement reducing demand for governance tools. However, the largest group cited purely economic reasons: teams that built working products, in some cases raising significant capital, but still failed to attract enough users or revenue to continue.
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