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8 Crypto Projects That Shut Down in 2026
Q1/2026 is already seeing a wave of crypto shutdowns.
Falling liquidity, unsustainable business models, and security breaches have forced several projects to shut down.
Here are 8 projects that closed in just the first few months of 2026 👇
1️⃣ MilkyWay
A liquid staking & restaking protocol on Celestia.
💰 Raised $5M — led by Polychain Capital
Backed by Binance Labs & Crypto.com
Launched token $MILK (04/2025)
📊 At its peak:
• $80M+ TVL
• 300k+ users
➡️ But demand for restaking quickly declined, making the model difficult to sustain.
2️⃣ Nifty Gateway
One of the pioneering NFT marketplaces.
Founded 2018
Acquired by Gemini (Winklevoss twins) in 2019
🎨 Released NFTs for:
• Beeple
• Pak
• Grimes
• Eminem
📊 Peak revenue: $300M+
➡️ After the NFT bubble burst, the platform never fully recovered.
Timeline:
• Jan 23 — switched to withdraw-only
• Feb 23 — officially shut down
3️⃣ Slingshot
A DEX aggregator originally built from a 2018 hackathon.
💰 Raised $18.1M
Investors:
• Framework Ventures
• Coinbase Ventures
• Winklevoss Capital
• Digital Currency Group
➡️ After the 2021 bull run, user activity dropped sharply and the business model became unsustainable.
Shutdown timeline:
• Sep 2025 — shutdown process began
• Feb 28 — infrastructure fully turned off
4️⃣ Polynomial
An on-chain derivatives platform for crypto, forex, and commodities.
💰 Raised $1.1M (led by Archetype)
📊 Stats:
• 27M+ transactions
• $4B+ total volume
However:
• Peak TVL only ~$8M
➡️ Liquidity was simply too thin to sustain the ecosystem.
Shutdown timeline:
• Feb 13 — markets paused
• Feb 18 — forced liquidation
• Feb 24 — liquidity layer shutdown
• Mar 3 — chain fully halted
5️⃣ ZeroLend
A multichain lending protocol on L2s.
💰 Raised $3M
📊 At peak:
• $359M TVL
• $120M token valuation
📉 At shutdown:
• TVL fell to $6.6M (-98%)
Key issues:
• Weak L2 ecosystems
• Oracle support discontinued
• Security risks
• Extremely thin lending margins
6️⃣ Parsec
A DeFi analytics terminal.
💰 Raised $5.25M
Investors:
• Galaxy Digital
• Polychain Capital
• Uniswap Ventures
📊 Peak adoption came during the 2022 crisis (Terra collapse, 3AC, stETH depeg), when traders needed deep on-chain monitoring.
➡️ Shut down Feb 19, 2026
✔ Subscriptions were refunded to users.
7️⃣ Step Finance
A DeFi dashboard on Solana.
💰 Raised $2M
Investors:
• Alameda Research
• Raydium
🚨 Jan 31: Treasury hack ($27–40M)
Attackers compromised a team member’s device and drained the treasury.
📉 Only $4.7M was recovered → forcing the project to shut down.
8️⃣ DataHaven
An AI + Web3 data storage project.
Mission:
• Private data vaults for AI agents
• User-owned data
But the project struggled with:
• Sustainable funding
• Viable token launch model
➡️ Closed March 4 and shut down all community channels.

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