Over 60 Crypto Firms and Projects Fold in 2026 as Bankruptcies, Bear Market and Hacks Rip Industry Apart

The past several months have exposed the part of the crypto industry that rarely gets attention during bull markets. Since bitcoin retreated from its October 2025 all-time high, balance sheets have tightened, hiring has slowed, layoffs are abundant, and funding rounds that once closed in weeks have stretched for months or disappeared altogether.

Across the industry, networks, projects, and startups have quietly shut their doors, while crypto-focused venture capital activity has cooled to levels that reflect far more caution than conviction.

The closures span every corner of the industry. Exchanges, layer-one (L1) and layer-two (L2) blockchains, wallets, NFT platforms, DAO tooling firms, and blockchain games all appear on the list. The stated causes vary just as widely: security exploits, failed licensing applications, unsustainable token economics, market-making scandals, and, in several cases, teams that simply said the product never found an audience.

Exchanges and Trading Platforms

BitMEX, the derivatives exchange co-founded by Arthur Hayes in 2014, announced on July 23 that it will cease operations at 04:00 UTC on September 23. The exchange invented the crypto perpetual swap and cited a strategic review rather than a specific trigger. AscendEX stopped trading on July 1 and confirmed its shutdown on July 11, pointing to a failed bid for EU MiCA licensing, a collapsed liquidity partnership, and weak market conditions.

Two days ago, Bitcoin.com News reported that BitMart had started a phased shutdown of its global trading platform, a process that typically unfolds over weeks as customer withdrawals, open positions, and operational obligations are gradually wound down. The exchange pointed to operating conditions, the broader market environment, and its long-term strategic direction as the reasons behind the decision, offering few details beyond that brief explanation.

Odos, a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator, said July 23 it would close all services by July 30 without detailing a reason. Luck.io, a Solana-based casino, told users to withdraw immediately on April 24 amid controversy over its fairness claims and its 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 roughly 66 million MOVE tokens following its exchange listing, triggering investigations and a price collapse. Alongside this, Blockfills, an institutional trading platform, filed for Chapter 11 on March 15 after a liquidity crisis tied to the February 2026 crypto market crash left it with $100 million to $500 million in liabilities exceeding its assets. Former bitcoin mining pool operator Poolin also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this month, marking another high-profile casualty.

Layer-One and Layer-Two Blockchains

Several infrastructure projects closed after concluding their networks lacked demand. Powerloom’s founders ordered validators to shut down nodes by June 16 following a strategic review, with the mainnet ceasing entirely by July 21 despite five years of development.

Botanix wound down its Spiderchain Bitcoin L2 on June 10 after one year, citing insufficient demand for Bitcoin DeFi. Hyli shut down its zero-knowledge blockchain the same day after two years. Sophon closed its zkSync-based L2 in late June after the chain, which had raised about $60 million, drew only 100 to 200 daily users and roughly $30 a day in fees; the team said it would pivot to building on Base.

Swell sunset its Swellchain L2 on June 15 to redirect resources toward a new product called Faro. Milkyway shut down its Celestia-based staking chain on March 26, citing low demand across the Celestia and DeFi sectors. Mint Blockchain, a real-world-asset L1, ceased operations on April 17 without detailing a cause, giving users until October 20 to withdraw funds. Moreover, Polygon’s zkEVM beta sequencer reached its planned end on July 1.

DeFi Protocols

Radiant Capital’s community voted to wind down its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and halt development on June 1, roughly 20 months after a $50 million exploit that the protocol said it could not recover from safely. Ionic Protocol halted all operations on June 18 over continued fallout from a 2025 exploit.

Carrot Finance, a Solana lending protocol, shut down on April 30 after an $8 million loss tied to the Drift Labs exploit left its reserves insolvent. Step Finance ended operations on February 24 after a January 31 hack drained roughly $40 million from its treasury; Remora Markets, a related tokenized-perpetuals platform, closed the same day and began reimbursing holders.

Polynomial, a derivatives exchange, force-closed all positions on February 18 after its hybrid orderbook and automated market maker model failed to attract liquidity, with a full shutdown following March 3. Seamless Protocol disclosed that its leveraged token products on Base failed to gain traction and set a June 30 closure, with a proposal to distribute remaining funds to token holders.

Everclear, a cross-chain liquidity protocol that had processed up to $500 million in monthly volume, wound down on May 21 after concluding it could not build a sustainable revenue model. Angle Protocol’s community agreed to unwind its EURA and USDA stablecoins over roughly a year, with 1-to-1 redemptions available through March 1, 2027.

Ionic, Loopring’s DEX and other DeFi products, and Ventuals, a Hyperliquid-based perpetuals platform that let vHYPE holders withdraw staked funds plus yield, also closed during the period, alongside Dango, a perpetual DEX and L1 that stopped trading July 29 and is shutting its chain by August 13 after concluding there was no path to profitability.

Wallets

Security exploits drove several wallet shutdowns. Secondfi, a Cardano wallet, announced July 22 it would wind down after attackers stole 16.1 million ADA, worth about $2.4 million, in June. Ctrl Wallet, formerly XDEFI, set an August 3 closure after a June 23 exploit targeting Cardano-based wallets in its system.

Xenea gave users 72 hours to export private keys before discontinuing its multi-chain wallet on July 9. Leap Wallet confirmed on April 2 that it would shut down May 28, telling Cosmos users to export seed phrases and migrate elsewhere. Magic Eden removed its wallet app from stores on April 1 and fully decommissioned it by May 1 to refocus on its core NFT marketplace.

NFTs, Gaming and Other Platforms

Foundation, an NFT marketplace, closed on April 15 after a planned sale to Blackdove fell through. Intergaze, a Cosmos NFT chain, gave users 14 days to withdraw before migrating remaining assets to Stargaze. Pudgy Party, Pudgy Penguins’ mobile game, closes July 14 as the company redirects resources to its newer title, Pudgy World.

Fishing Frenzy, which had roughly 10 million installs and $1 million in revenue, closes June 25 after its developer said the game never found a sustainable product-market fit. Gensokishi Online, a Polygon-based MMORPG, shut down on April 30 after running at a monthly loss of roughly 8 million yen. Pixel Heroes Adventure’s studio dissolved entirely on April 15, laying off all staff.

Fantasy.top, an onchain trading card game shutdown services, and Dmail, a decentralized email service citing high infrastructure costs and weak monetization, also closed during the window. Zapper, a seven-year-old DeFi portfolio tracker, closes on August 3 after concluding its economics no longer justify continuing.

DAO and Analytics Tooling

Tally, a DAO governance platform, announced on March 17 that it would wind down after six years. Chief executive Dennison Bertram said looser SEC enforcement under the current administration made onchain governance optional for many projects, collapsing demand for the tool. Syndicate, backed by A16z, wound down May 21 after five years amid shrinking interest in new rollup networks.

Parsec, an onchain analytics platform backed in part by Galaxy Digital, shut down February 19, citing a difficult competitive market, and pledged to refund subscriptions. Slingshot, a DEX aggregator, began sunsetting in late January and fully closed by February 28 over low usage. Entropy, a self-custody startup that had raised $25 million in 2022, closed in January after repeated pivots failed to secure further funding.

Legend, a DeFi wallet and aggregator, set a July 12 closure date after its co-founder said the product built an audience but never reached sustainable scale. Yupp, an AI model feedback platform, closed March 31 after less than a year, saying rapid AI model improvements made its crowdsourced service obsolete.

Soundness, a quantum-resistant blockchain project, ceased operations on June 18, saying the industry simply was not prioritizing quantum-resistant security. Satori, a perpetual DEX, wound down by July 16, citing prolonged weak market conditions. A handful of projects were also reported to be closing or inactive without a public announcement detailing terms or reasons.

What It Adds Up To

The list points to three recurring pressures. Security exploits forced at least half a dozen closures, from Step Finance’s $40 million hack to the Cardano-linked breaches that hit Secondfi and Ctrl Wallet. Regulatory friction played a direct role for AscendEX, which could not secure MiCA licensing, and an indirect one for Tally, whose founder tied the shutdown to looser SEC enforcement reducing demand for governance tools. The largest group, though, cited plain economics: teams that built working products, raised meaningful capital in several cases, and still could not attract enough users or revenue to continue.