融資千萬也沒撐過去，今年加密行業到底倒了誰？

Original: Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )

Author: Asher (@Asher_0210)

Last weekend, the established crypto exchange BitMart suddenly announced it would be shutting down in an orderly manner, once again sparking market discussions on the survival of crypto projects.

In fact, since the beginning of this year, it's not just small and medium-sized projects that have chosen to shut down; notable projects include those that once raised tens of millions of dollars, had millions of users, or even stood out as leaders in their specific niches.

From NFTs, DeFi, and Layer 2, to wallets, exchanges, and infrastructure, the reasons for project collapses vary. Odaily Planet Daily has compiled a list of well-funded, high-profile crypto projects that announced closures this year, examining why these projects, once sought after by capital and the market, ultimately failed to survive.

Reason 1: Unsustainable Business Model

These projects didn't lack users, transaction volume, or funding; in fact, many had impressive metrics in their heyday. However, none could convert their scale into revenue sufficient to sustain long-term operations.

Zapper

Founded in 2019, Zapper was one of the most well-known asset management and portfolio tracking tools in the early DeFi space. At its peak, it had over 2 million monthly active users and processed over $13 billion in cumulative transactions. The project raised approximately $16.5 million, including a $15 million Series A round in 2021 led by Framework Ventures and Sound Ventures.

Zapper initially gained users quickly through asset tracking and transaction aggregation. However, as it expanded into NFTs, on-chain social features, block explorers, and data APIs, it consistently failed to generate stable revenue commensurate with its user base. Despite peak monthly active users exceeding 2 million and processing over $13 billion in transactions, this traffic and transaction volume could not be translated into sustainable commercial returns. After evaluating several options for continued operation, the team ultimately opted for an orderly exit, planning to shut down its website, app, and API services on August 3rd.

Everclear

Everclear was previously Connext, a cross-chain protocol founded in 2017, which later pivoted to a cross-chain clearing and settlement network. The project raised approximately $26.7 million from investors including Polychain Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and 1kx.

The team stated that users were highly sensitive to prices, and the launch timeline for several major signed clients was slower than expected. Before related partnerships could generate stable revenue, the project's funds were exhausted, leading to the final decision to close the protocol and disband the team.

DL News

DL News launched in 2022, initially as the news arm of the DeFi data platform DefiLlama. It focused on independent reporting and investigative journalism, aiming to distinguish itself from traditional media's bias against Crypto while also avoiding the excessive promotional nature of industry media.

After an internal conflict at DefiLlama in 2023, the two entities became largely decoupled, and DL News lost its traffic support from DefiLlama. Concurrently, overall traffic for crypto and tech media declined, with AI search and content aggregators further siphoning website visits. Although its research arm, DL Research, saw revenue grow by 270% in 2025 and surpassed $1 million in annual sales, this was insufficient to sustain the entire media business. DL News ultimately shut down at the end of May this year.

Fantasy.top

Fantasy.top launched in 2024 as a SocialFi game on the Blast ecosystem. It featured Crypto KOLs as NFT card assets, where users formed teams based on KOLs' interaction data on platform X. The project raised $4.25 million, led by Dragonfly, with participation from Manifold Ventures.

Fantasy.top generated significant initial revenue through NFT card trading, but the team discovered that transaction volume couldn't sustain the game's operations long-term. Subsequent attempts to pivot into prediction markets, social data, and other gameplay mechanics failed, as the team couldn't find a direction that consistently attracted users and supported revenue. The team announced the end of operations in May this year and completed the shutdown in June.

Satori Finance

Satori Finance launched in 2022 as a multi-chain perpetual DEX, covering networks like Arbitrum, Base, and zkSync. The project raised $10 million in funding, led by Polychain Capital with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Jump Crypto, and others. Cumulative perpetual contract trading volume exceeded $134 billion.

Despite the massive cumulative trading volume, actual sustainable revenue was limited. Protocol revenue in Q1 2026 was approximately $580,000, which subsequently contracted sharply. The team ultimately announced the cessation of operations, requiring users to close positions and withdraw assets by July 16th.

Yupp

Yupp is an AI model evaluation platform where users can freely compare hundreds of AI models and provide feedback to help model developers gather preference data. The project completed a $33 million seed round led by a16z crypto.

As model capabilities rapidly improved, the industry's focus shifted from simple chatbots to Agents. The demand from model developers for crowdsourced evaluation data also changed. The team ultimately decided to stop further investment and returned the remaining funds to investors.

Legend

Founded in 2024 by former executives from Compound, Legend was positioned as a mobile-first DeFi Super App for mainstream users. It integrated yield, lending, and trading functions from protocols like Aave, Compound, and Uniswap into a single application. In 2025, it raised $15 million from a16z crypto and Coinbase Ventures.

Founder Jayson Hobby reflected that mainstream users care less about whether a product is "on-chain" and more about practical experiences like yields and payment speed. Simply lowering the barrier to entry for DeFi wasn't enough to drive mass adoption. The team ultimately decided to halt investment, and the application officially shut down on July 12th of this year.

Entropy

Founded in 2021, Entropy initially focused on decentralized asset custody and threshold signature infrastructure, pivoting its direction multiple times. The project raised nearly $27 million cumulatively, including a $25 million seed round led by a16z in 2022, with participation from Dragonfly, Variant, Coinbase Ventures, and others.

After multiple pivots and two rounds of layoffs, Entropy pivoted in 2025 to a crypto automation platform, aiming to be the "Crypto version of Zapier/n8n". However, initial market feedback suggested this model would struggle to scale to the levels required by VCs. The founder, unwilling to pivot again, ultimately chose to close the company and returned the remaining funds to investors.

Reason 2: Cooling of the Sector

These projects once bet on a hot narrative, but the actual market demand didn't grow to the initially expected scale. As the sector cooled, the original growth logic became obsolete.

NFTfi

NFTfi launched in 2020 as one of the earliest NFT-collateralized lending protocols, allowing holders to pledge NFTs for liquidity. The project completed 6 funding rounds totaling approximately $11.89 million, including a $6 million Series A round in 2024. Over six years of operation, the platform facilitated over $737 million in loans across 82,000 peer-to-peer transactions.

As the NFT market continued to shrink, NFTfi's potential revenue became insufficient to cover protocol operational costs. While the team remained optimistic about NFTs' long-term value, the uncertainty regarding market recovery and the inability to continue subsidizing protocol operations led them to stop accepting new loans. They plan to shut down the front end by August 31st of this year while keeping the on-chain contracts in place.

Parsec

Parsec started in 2020 as a data analysis tool for Uniswap v1 and evolved into an on-chain data terminal for DeFi and NFTs, offering custom dashboards and API services. The project raised approximately $5.25 million from investors including Galaxy Digital, Polychain Capital, Uniswap Ventures, and Robot Ventures.

Parsec's core demand historically came from DeFi leveraged trading and active NFT markets, particularly gaining heavy usage during the cascading failures of Terra, 3AC, and others. However, after the FTX collapse, the structure of DeFi spot lending and leveraged trading changed noticeably. The original demand never recovered, and the NFT market also continued to cool. Founder Will Sheehan admitted the team made several wrong bets on market direction, ultimately closing the platform in February this year and refunding remaining subscription fees.

MilkyWay

MilkyWay launched in 2023 as the first liquid staking protocol on the Celestia ecosystem, later expanding to Initia, Babylon, and restaking. Its TVL once reached $250 million. The project raised approximately $6 million, including a $5 million seed round led by Polychain Capital with participation from Binance Labs, Hack VC, and others.

DeFi activity on Celestia didn't explode as the team expected, and the demand for restaking quickly faded. MilkyWay subsequently attempted to pivot into RWA and payment card businesses but failed to find a sustainable direction. The team ultimately decided to permanently shut down the protocol.

Tally

Founded in 2020, Tally was an on-chain governance infrastructure platform that provided voting, proposal, and delegation tools for over 500 DAOs, including Uniswap, Arbitrum, and ENS. The project raised approximately $17 million in cumulative funding, with an $8 million Series A round in 2025 from investors like AppWorks, Blockchain Capital, and 1kx.

Tally originally bet on a future with thousands of L2s and countless DAOs. However, the industry eventually consolidated around a few leading protocols, consumer-level on-chain applications didn't materialize as expected, and the potential customer base for governance tools was far lower than anticipated. With the regulatory environment easing, the impetus for projects to achieve decentralized governance through DAOs decreased further. Tally once planned to seek new growth through an ICO but ultimately abandoned the token launch and announced its closure in March this year.

Botanix

Botanix started in 2022, focusing on the Bitcoin-based EVM-compatible Layer 2, Spiderchain. It aimed to develop BTCFi without relying on token issuance, points, or airdrop incentives. The project raised $11.5 million from investors including Polychain Capital, Placeholder, Valor Equity Partners, and ABCDE.

Botanix ultimately didn't see the expected demand for Bitcoin DeFi. The team found that needs for lending, yields, and leverage could largely be met via WBTC and mature L2s. Users lacked sufficient incentive to migrate to a dedicated Bitcoin L2, and the fees generated by the network were not enough to cover infrastructure costs. Meanwhile, on-chain traffic further concentrated on platforms with direct user entry points, such as Hyperliquid and CEXs. Botanix announced the cessation of operations in June this year and entered a network wind-down process.

Colony

Colony was founded in 2021 as an ecosystem investment and acceleration platform focused on Avalanche. It raised approximately $19.5 million from investors including the Avalanche Foundation, HashKey Capital, Shima Capital, and GBV Capital. It long provided early-stage investment and liquidity support for Avalanche projects.

As the number of new projects within the Avalanche ecosystem decreased and their quality declined, participation from external VCs also continued to wane. The team's year-long development effort on the HyperSDK product was forced to be shelved due to Avalanche adjusting its technical roadmap. Subsequently, their key BTC.b project lost its foundation for implementation after changes in asset management control. Following two consecutive setbacks on core bets, Colony announced the end of its five-year Avalanche ecosystem business and ceased application services in July.

Reason 3: Security Incidents

This category isn't just about whether a product is needed. Hacker attacks, asset losses, liquidity crises, and running out of capital runway ultimately stripped projects of their ability to continue operations.

AscendEX

AscendEX, formerly known as BitMax, launched in 2018 as a centralized exchange offering spot, derivatives, and staking services. It completed a $50 million Series B round in 2021, led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC, with participation from Jump Capital and Alameda Research.

AscendEX suffered a hot wallet attack in 2021, losing approximately $77.7 million, and subsequently promised to fully compensate users. By the time of its closure this year, financial pressures resurfaced. A strategic transaction intended to replenish liquidity failed to complete, user withdrawals became restricted, and the platform eventually suspended automatic withdrawals, stating it couldn't guarantee the timing or amounts. The official announcement also cited MiCA compliance pressures and other financial and operational factors. AscendEX officially ceased operations on July 1st.

ZeroLend

ZeroLend launched in 2023 as a DeFi lending protocol deployed on multiple chains including zkSync, Linea, and Manta. At its peak, TVL neared $359 million. The project completed a $3 million seed round in 2024, with investors including Morningstar Ventures and Cypher Capital.

In February 2025, ZeroLend's LBTC market on Base suffered an attack. The attacker exploited a mechanism related to PT-LBTC to drain approximately 3.92 LBTC. Affected users received only partial compensation by the time the project shut down. Subsequently, ZeroLend faced issues like liquidity depletion on early supported chains (Manta, Zircuit, XLayer) and oracle support cessation. Combined with low profit margins in lending and high security costs, the protocol was in a chronic loss-making state, leading the team to decide on cessation of operations.

Ctrl Wallet

Ctrl Wallet, formerly known as XDEFI Wallet, was founded in 2020 as a self-custody wallet offering multi-chain asset management, swaps, and DApp interactions. The project raised approximately $26.6 million from investors including Mechanism Capital and DeFiance Capital.

On June 23rd this year, Ctrl Wallet disclosed a security incident, stating that some Cardano wallets were affected, and related functionalities were suspended. The exact loss amount was not disclosed. The platform didn't fully recover and permanently shut down about two weeks later on July 7th. It was removed from app stores, and core functions like transfers, swaps, and DApps ceased on August 3rd.

Syndicate

Syndicate was founded in 2021, initially offering on-chain investment club and DAO tools before pivoting to Rollup, app-chain, and sequencer infrastructure. The project raised approximately $27.8 million cumulatively, including a $20 million Series A round led by a16z in 2021, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Electric Capital.

In April this year, Syndicate's official cross-chain bridge, Commons, was attacked. The attacker drained and sold approximately 18.5 million SYND tokens, cashing out about $330,000. Commons was subsequently shut down. A month later, Syndicate announced the end of its operations.

Reason 4: Abandonment of Original Technical Path

Some projects didn't face a sudden cash flow crisis but gradually lost their technological edge and reason for existence amidst industry evolution. For these long-running older projects, the final choice was to directly abandon the old path.

Loopring

Founded in 2017, Loopring was one of the earliest zkRollup projects on Ethereum, focusing on Layer 2 DEX, payments, and smart wallets. Its 2017 ICO raised approximately $45 million. In June this year, Loopring officially shut down its DEX and decommissioned its sequencer.

The team acknowledged that early zkRollups lacked virtual machines and composability, and the payments use case never gained substantial adoption. Subsequently, the zkEVM route was overtaken by newer, compatible solutions. The delisting of LRC from major exchanges in 2026 further shrank its ecosystem. In 2024, Loopring also suffered an attack on its Guardian service, resulting in the theft of approximately $5 million in assets, leading to the gradual withdrawal of its wallet and several DeFi products.

ICON

ICON launched in 2017 as an early representative L1 in South Korea, focusing on blockchain interoperability. The project raised approximately $43 million in early funding, with participation from Pantera Capital and Kenetic Capital. After nearly nine years of operation, ICON's technology and community gradually migrated to the cross-chain DeFi infrastructure SODAX.

As the industry infrastructure matured, the team believed continuing to maintain an independent Layer 1 would fragment funds and development resources. Therefore, they chose to cease ICX incentives and concentrate resources on SODAX. ICON entered an economic shutdown phase in March this year and plans to permanently halt the network on December 31st.