Crypto Shutdown Wave Enters "Deep Bear" Phase: Over 60 Prominent Projects Exit in 2022, Market Downturn Accelerates

August 5th, as time moves into the second half of the bear market, the cryptocurrency market has experienced a significant industry-wide purge. Today, Shaw Walters, the founder of ElizaOS (formerly ai16z), announced that the ai16z/ElizaOS token has "completely died," and the related foundation will gradually cease operations. This marks another iconic exit event following the closure of over 60 well-known crypto projects in the first half of the year.

According to statistics, in 2026, more than 60 well-known crypto projects, public chains/Layer2, DeFi protocols, wallets, NFT platforms, and DAO tools have announced the cessation of operations or filed for bankruptcy, with the shutdown rate notably accelerating in late July.

This wave of exits has covered almost all tracks. In the centralized exchange PT1 sector, derivatives pioneer BitMEX announced on July 23rd that it will officially close on September 23rd, ending its 11-year operation; AscendEX ceased trading on July 1st due to the failure to obtain the EU MiCA license; BitMart initiated a phased shutdown. In Layer1/Layer2 and infrastructure, projects such as Polygon zkEVM, Botanix, Sophon, Powerloom, and MilkyWay have successively ceased operations. In the DeFi field, Radiant Capital, Step Finance (which suffered a hack of around $40 million), Ionic Protocol, and Everclear exited due to security incidents or liquidity depletion. In the wallet track, projects like Secondfi, Ctrl Wallet, and Leap Wallet closed due to security vulnerabilities or strategic adjustments. NFT, gaming, and tool projects such as Foundation, Fishing Frenzy, Tally, and Zapper were not spared either.

The main reasons are concentrated in three points: the business model fails to generate sustainable revenue (even though some projects had high monthly active users or trading volume), the cool-down of track popularity leading to user and fund outflows, and hacker attacks directly cutting off the money chain. Many projects had received funding ranging from millions to tens of millions of dollars but struggled to prove product-market fit after the market downturn. Unlike the leverage chain reaction meltdown in 2022, this round is more of a "starvation" — orderly or forced exits after funds are depleted.