Original author: Ma He, Foresight News
The crypto community received a somber message today.
On March 17, the official Tally X account published a lengthy post in which founder Dennison Bertram openly stated that the company would be shutting down permanently and that its planned ICO had been entirely canceled. After more than five years of operation, the team, which once provided core infrastructure for decentralized governance, chose the most honest yet most difficult path—exit.
Left image: CEO Dennison Bertram; right image: CTO Rafael Solari
After the announcement of X, countless DAO members, developers who had previously participated in proposals and governance through Tally, and project teams that relied on Tally’s stable operation during the bear market, left comments such as “a legend ends,” “respect,” and “heartbroken.” Tally did not collapse suddenly—it simply reached the point where it had to acknowledge reality.
How did we get here?
The answer is right there in the most straightforward sentence in the announcement: “Currently, at least for now, there is no sustainable business model for VC-backed tools focused on decentralized protocol governance.”
From its inception, Tally bet on a specific future—the Ethereum "infinite garden" vision: thousands of decentralized protocols, millions of active participants, and robust governance systems operating at scale. They believed the crypto world would need a sophisticated and intricate infrastructure for coordination and governance, much like how the traditional internet relies on Slack, Notion, and Airtable.
Reality dealt them a harsh blow.
Over the past few years, the crypto industry has indeed produced massive success stories, but product-market fit has almost entirely centered on payments and speculation. Consumer applications, protocol communities, and organizational ecosystems requiring heavy governance have not grown to a scale capable of sustaining an infrastructure company. Tally did not lack effort—they spent five full years championing DAOs—but when the market fails to provide sufficient nourishment, even the strongest conviction cannot withstand reality.
The announcement clearly states: “You must accept the world as it is, not as you wish it to be.” This sentiment is both harsh and clarifying. The governance tools赛道 has yet to reach its moment, and Tally chose to cut its losses proactively rather than persist in selling tokens or making promises it couldn’t fulfill. This restraint is especially precious in today’s volatile crypto market.
It’s highly ironic that some project teams are still trying to harvest the last bits of liquidity while preparing to sell their tokens.
But shutting down does not equal failure. On the contrary, Tally’s track record is impressive enough for the entire industry to remember them.
Over five years, more than $1 billion in payments has flowed through Tally’s infrastructure; the systems they help operate have secured over $80 billion in value; over one million people have visited the platform; hundreds of organizations have achieved self-governance through Tally; and tens of millions of token holder addresses have cast votes on proposals here.
Even more impressively: they have never experienced a single major security incident.
In the crypto world, this is almost miraculous. DDoS attacks, relentless infrastructure pressure, the gray areas of regulation in the Gensler era—Tally has weathered every challenge and even protected the entire ecosystem along the way. From top DeFi projects to the once-infamous Ooki DAO, all have been their users. Tally has proven through action that decentralized governance can scale.
The team is even Tally's most valuable legacy.
According to publicly available information, Tally’s founding core is highly streamlined. Co-founder and CEO Dennison Bertram is a crypto OG who previously founded BuyBTC, an early Bitcoin exchange in the Czech Republic, and later founded DappHero. The other co-founder and CTO, Rafael Solari, holds a computer science background from the University of California, Berkeley, and previously worked as an engineer at Namebase, specializing in governance contracts, smart contract security, and infrastructure development.
Dennison repeatedly emphasizes in the article: “Tally’s team is among the top engineers and operators in the crypto space.” Raph (co-founder) will remain for a short time to handle the transition, but the entire team is already actively pursuing new opportunities.
The governance application will begin a phased shutdown by the end of this month. Enterprise partners have already been provided with continuation plans; however, small organizations, due to decentralization principles, did not provide contact information and must rely on this post for guidance. The interface will remain available for a while longer to provide a transition period.
Looking back at Tally’s five years, they weren’t the main characters of crypto’s future, but they truly became part of crypto’s history. Dennison said, “Tally may not be a part of crypto’s future, but we were part of its story. That matters.”
This statement echoes the sentiments of many veterans.
Crypto is no longer "early." Institutional entry, government endorsement, infrastructure development—these once-imagined successes are now becoming reality, while simultaneously revealing new challenges. Tally’s shutdown arrives precisely at this turning point: it reminds everyone that visions may be beautiful, but execution is harsh; dreams can be postponed, but they cannot run indefinitely without progress.
They stood by when DeFi needed support the most, withstood attacks, maintained security, and made governance a reality.
Now, they choose to walk away.
The story of crypto continues, but this chapter with Tally has come to an end.