A total of 82 cryptocurrency projects and protocols have stopped operating so far this year, data showed. Closures have spread across the industry, from DeFi to blockchain infrastructure and Web3 games, as a prolonged bear market, worsening profitability, depleted funding and security incidents converge.

On Oct. 20, Cointelegraph reported that cryptocurrency researcher Stacey Moore (스테이시 무어) compiled 82 digital asset projects and protocols reported to have shut down this year and posted the list on X. The list included Balancer, Radiant Capital, Neon EVM and Step Finance. Moore assessed the scale of the closures as something she had never seen before.

Worsening market conditions added to the burden on projects. Bitcoin hit a record high above $126,000 in October 2025, but fell below $60,000 early this year. As the market contraction made it harder to attract users and generate revenue, projects with a weakened foundation to continue operations are seen as deciding one after another to shut down.

A representative case is Ethereum layer-2 network Blast. Blast announced early this month that it would shut down, saying it had no economically sustainable and reliable path. Even a network that once attracted more than $2 billion in deposits failed to overcome profitability limits.

The reasons for shutdowns differed by project. Step Finance halted operations after a large-scale treasury breach incident in February. Radiant Capital announced in June that it would close the business after failing to recover from exploit damage that occurred in 2024. Satori Finance, which had been backed by Coinbase, also stopped operating after judging it was difficult to sustain the business on revenue alone.

The closure trend also appeared in other tallies. DefiLlama said in an August report that the number of cryptocurrency projects that announced shutdowns this year reached 100. Of those, 40 shut down in the preceding 90 days. It analysed that there were many projects that failed to secure enough users or generate sufficient revenue to cover operating costs.

The most common cause of closures was a lack of product-market fit. Other major reasons cited were depleted funding, insufficient revenue and switching to other products. That means it has become difficult to sustain a business by only developing technology and issuing tokens.

Projects that raised substantial investment were no exception. The closed projects raised a cumulative total of about $1 billion, and their cumulative fees were tallied at $250 million. Nine projects raised $50 million or more each but still could not continue operations. That suggests early fundraising size did not guarantee long-term survival.

Signs of market reshaping also emerged in venture investment and mergers and acquisitions. DefiLlama said venture investment in the first half of 2026 rose from the previous year, but the number of deals fell 80 percent. As of the time of writing, M&A totalled 87 cases, up 65 percent from a year earlier. That is interpreted as funds concentrating on proven businesses or reshaping through M&A, rather than flowing evenly into new projects overall.

As a result, the cryptocurrency market is placing greater importance on the ability to secure an actual user base and a sustainable revenue structure than on simple token issuance or early-stage fundraising. Projects lacking the financial strength to withstand security incidents and product competitiveness are increasingly likely to face additional pressure to exit.