The Crypto Landscape Continues to Shed Leaves: 6 More Projects and Platforms Shut Down

In the past week, at least six crypto and Web3 projects have decided to cease operations in the cryptocurrency market. The reasons behind these shutdowns vary. Some projects cited the inability to cover operational costs with their revenues, while others pointed to funding cuts or the inability to establish a sustainable business model.

The Most Shocking News Came from the Closure of Blast

The most notable development of the week came from the Ethereum layer-2 network, Blast. The project announced that it would enter the shutdown process on October 2.

The Blast team stated that the cost of running the network had become higher than the revenue generated, and they did not see a realistic path to achieving an economically sustainable model.

Having raised $20 million in investments led by Paradigm and Standard Crypto, Blast had managed to attract over $2 billion in funds from approximately 200,000 users before its mainnet launch in 2024. According to the latest data, the TVL on the network has dropped to around $32 million.

Users have been asked to transfer their assets to the Ethereum mainnet. Withdrawals through Blast's standard interface will continue until October 26. After this date, users wishing to access their assets will need to interact directly with the bridge contracts on Ethereum.

Development and Support for Neon EVM Have Ended

Neon EVM, which enables Ethereum-compatible applications to run on Solana, has also joined the list of projects in the shutdown process.

According to the official announcement, active development, maintenance work, and technical support provided by the team for Neon EVM will cease as of October 1, 2026. No new updates or upgrades for the protocol are planned thereafter.

Users and developers have been given until December 31, 2026, to complete necessary transfer and asset withdrawal processes. The Neon EVM team did not elaborate on the specific reasons for the shutdown, stating that the decision was made after evaluating the project's current status.

Router Protocol Ceased Operations on September 30

The cross-chain infrastructure project Router Protocol, which received investment from Coinbase Ventures, ceased its operations as of September 30.

The Router team evaluated alternatives such as commercializing its technology, licensing, or finding a buyer for the company for about a year but could not come up with a sustainable solution.

The project also decided to burn approximately 303.3 million ROUTE tokens from its treasury, which represents about 30% of the token's maximum supply. The support for ROUTE on centralized exchanges is also planned to be gradually phased out.

Router Protocol had been operational for over four years. Some of the project's technology components are planned to be left as open source for the community.

Inlock Platform Completely Shut Down

The long-standing liquidation process for the crypto lending platform Inlock was significantly completed on September 30.

The company announced that its web application has been permanently disabled and that login, account access, or other online transactions through the platform can no longer be performed.

Inlock's issues are not new. Some services on the platform were suspended in November 2022, and in the following years, the company focused its activities on resolving customer obligations and repaying assets. Activities such as the custody and transfer of customer crypto assets were completely terminated by June 30, 2026.

With the closure of the web platform on September 30, the operational process was completed. Only past account records and customer support related to the liquidation process will continue until December 31, 2026.

CoinEx Smart Chain and OneSwap Have Closed

Another ecosystem in the shutdown process is CoinEx.

CoinEx's own blockchain, CoinEx Smart Chain (CSC), officially ceased operations as of September 29. With the closure of the network, transfers on-chain and related developer services also came to an end.

On the same day, CoinEx's decentralized finance platform OneSwap also halted its operations. All spot trading on the CoinEx exchange was closed as of September 29.

However, the CoinEx exchange itself has not yet completely shut down. Withdrawal services will remain open until December 22, 2026, allowing users to withdraw their assets, and the exchange will completely cease operations on that date. CoinEx Wallet and CoinEx Vault are excluded from the shutdown decision.

Shipyard Halts IPFS Operations

Another significant development on the Web3 infrastructure side occurred at Shipyard.

Shipyard, which conducted development work in the IPFS and libp2p ecosystems, ceased its engineering, maintenance, and infrastructure activities related to IPFS as of September 30, following Protocol Labs' decision not to renew funding for the company.

This decision also affects important projects such as Kubo, Helia, Boxo, IPFS Desktop, and IPFS Companion. Development, bug fixing, and maintenance support provided by Shipyard for these projects will no longer be available.

The company also withdrew from some public IPFS infrastructures it managed, including ipfs.io and dweb.link. The future of these infrastructures will be decided by Protocol Labs.

Sustainability Issues Come to the Fore

While the shutdowns in the past week cannot be attributed to a single reason, financial sustainability emerges as a common theme in many cases.

Blast stated that its operational costs exceeded network revenues, while Router Protocol expressed that it could not find a sustainable commercialization model or buyer. Shipyard's IPFS activities ceased following the non-renewal of external funding.

On the other hand, CoinEx's shutdown process is broader in scope. The exchange previously stated that prolonged market contraction, declining trading volume and liquidity, and increasing regulatory and compliance costs were among the reasons for its decision.

Published: October 4, 2026 22:03