Since the start of 2026, the crypto industry has lost 75 projects — and in every case the teams announced the shutdown themselves. The sample includes exchanges, layer-2 networks, lending protocols, wallets, and games that announced closure between January 6 and October 12, 2026.
The main blow fell on the market's infrastructure segment. The closed projects were distributed across eight categories:
- 19 DeFi protocols;
- 14 layer-1 and layer-2 blockchains;
- 12 infrastructure projects;
- 10 Web3 games;
- 6 social and other services;
- 5 exchanges;
- 5 wallets;
- 4 NFT platforms.
DeFi, blockchains, and infrastructure together accounted for 45 positions — 60% of the list. Consumer products (games, wallets, NFT marketplaces, and social services) accounted for exactly one third. There were only five exchanges, but among them was BitMEX, which had been operating for 11 years.
Closures were unevenly distributed by month. The year started quietly — two projects in January, five in February, six in March. Then came the first wave: 14 projects closed in April alone. In May the pace fell to seven, and in June it rose to 13. The two peak months produced 27 closures — more than a third of the entire list. After that, the numbers declined: 10 in July, eight in August, six in September, and four in the first 12 days of October.
The October lull is deceptive. From October 13 to 27, five more closures were confirmed — Cardano Card, Echo Protocol, Zipcoin, Genius Yield, and Roam Network. With them, October has already reached nine cases — more than in all of September.
Common traits of the underperformers
Some projects closed after a blow to their business. Balancer announced it was winding down after a $128 million hack. The Blast layer-2 network closed after the total value locked (TVL) in it fell 98% from $2.2 billion.
The second pattern is that closures cluster in the same segments. The list includes several layer-2 networks at once — Blast, Abstract, Polygon zkEVM, Sophon, Lisk Chain, Botanix, Mint Blockchain, and Zero Network. Among DeFi protocols, the lending markets Radiant Capital, ZeroLend, Seamless Protocol, and Ionic stand out. The NFT segment lost the marketplaces Blur and Foundation, and in infrastructure, the Shipyard team that maintained IPFS also ceased operations.
The third sign is that closures come in chains within a single ecosystem. The CoinEx exchange and its CoinEx Smart Chain blockchain announced their halt on the same day, September 15.
Closure does not always mean a complete shutdown. Blur disabled only its interface, POAP wound down the company but the badges remained on the blockchain, and Angle abandoned stablecoins while keeping the rest of its protocol.
Based on this data, three types of projects are at risk — protocols after a major hack, layer-2 networks with collapsed TVL, and services whose parent company is already winding down neighboring products. The candidates for closure include Silicon Network (halted deposits in September, with a full wind-down planned by year-end), Manta, Zora, LightLink, Scroll, KelpDAO (a $290 million exploit — the largest in DeFi this year), UXLINK, X100, CoinDCX, and Initia.
Cryptalist analysis: Mass closures are concentrated in capital-intensive infrastructure segments, where resilience depends directly on TVL inflows and trust after security incidents. The market is going through a consolidation phase: projects with real revenue and a margin of safety survive, while layer-2 networks and lending protocols without organic demand become the first candidates for exit. Investors should assess the risk profile of assets through the lens of TVL dynamics, hack history, and the resilience of the parent ecosystem.