At least five cryptocurrency companies announced closures this week as a prolonged market slump has reduced user activity and investor funding. Fantasy.top, a crypto trading card platform; Everclear, a cross-blockchain infrastructure company; and ZERO Network, an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain, all announced Thursday they were winding down after failing to find sustainable market fit or maintain sufficient revenue. The same week, Ethereum infrastructure firm Syndicate Labs announced it was winding down after five years in a shrinking rollup market, and Bitcoin Depot, a crypto ATM company, filed for bankruptcy in the US on Monday, citing financial strain and regulatory pressure. Bitcoin has fallen approximately 40% from a peak of $126,000 in early October, and the crypto industry has laid off more than 5,000 employees this year.
Fantasy.top Shuts Down in June
Fantasy.top posted to X on Thursday that it would shut down in June after two years of operations because its trading volume "was not sufficient to sustainably support long-term operations." The company explored different products, including prediction markets, to remain viable, but "none reached durable market fit." Co-founder "Kipit" attributed the failure to attempting to "put crypto on top of a model that was never built for crypto," which attracted people "who want to make money from cards" instead of those who enjoy trading card games.
Everclear Winds Down Operations
Everclear announced it was winding down the Everclear Foundation and Everclear Labs, the two organizations managing and developing the protocol, because it "never developed the commercial depth we needed" and could not sustain meaningful revenue. The protocol explored acquisition options and shifted to a partnership-focused model, but "underestimated how long it would take those partners to go live — and our runway ran out before they did." Everclear stated it is considering open-sourcing its protocol to allow its community the option of continuing to run it.
ZERO Network Shuts Down to Focus on Zerion
The ZERO Network team posted to X on Thursday that it was shuttering the network to focus on its sister crypto wallet and data service, Zerion. Zerion co-founder and CEO Evgeny Yurtaev stated: "We launched ZERO believing users shouldn't pay to transact on-chain. We were obsessed with moving on-chain mainstream. We still are. But the world didn't need more blockchains — it needs a better way to access them."
Broader Pattern of Closures
Other recent crypto company closures include crypto mobile superapp Legend, which announced closure on May 13. Solana aggregator Step Finance, crypto derivatives protocol Polynomial, crypto lending protocol Seamless, and Balancer Labs, the team behind the Balancer protocol, have also closed due to hacks or lack of market fit.
Market Winners and Losers
NYDIG research lead Greg Cipolaro said in February that the number of crypto projects attracting investors is shrinking, with only applications or services that "extend traditional finance products onto blockchain infrastructure" receiving the most attention. Crypto platform Hyperliquid, popular for its perpetual futures, saw its token trade above $62 on Thursday, according to CoinGecko. Prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket, which use blockchains, recorded a combined record monthly volume of $23.8 billion in April, according to Token Terminal data. Conversely, major public crypto companies including Bullish, BitGo, Galaxy Digital, and Coinbase posted losses in their first-quarter results due to market conditions.
