Odaily Planet Daily report: Cryptocurrency researcher Stacy Muur has listed 82 digital asset projects and protocols allegedly shut down by 2026, including Balancer, Radiant Capital, Neon EVM, and Step Finance, spanning DeFi, blockchain infrastructure, and Web3 gaming sectors.
The shutdown context includes declining revenues, exhausted funding, and security incidents. Bitcoin's price fell below $60,000 earlier this year, down from its historical high of over $126,000 in October 2025, increasing financial pressure on the project.
Ethereum Layer 2 network Blast announced its shutdown, stating that the project lacked a "credible economic path forward." Step Finance ceased operations following a major treasury vulnerability incident, and Radiant Capital announced the end of its operations after failing to recover from the 2024 vulnerability incident.
A DeFiLlama study in August revealed that 100 crypto projects had announced shutdowns by 2026, with 40 occurring in the previous 90 days; the most common reasons were product-market mismatch, followed by exhausted funding, insufficient revenue, and pivots to other products. These projects collectively raised approximately $1 billion and incurred $250 million in total expenses, with nine individual projects raising over $50 million each. (Cointelegraph)