Crypto Cleanup Accelerates as More Than 100 Projects Go Under

RootData is tracking a broad shakeout across exchanges, DeFi, NFTs, and layer-2s. Many teams from the 2021 to 2025 bull market are now struggling as funding and trading volumes dry up.

Key Takeaways

• More than 100 crypto projects have shut down, gone bankrupt, or quietly disappeared in 2026, according to RootData data.
• In the last week of July, BitMEX, BitMart, Movement Labs, and Storj Labs either shut down or failed.
• The closures hit exchanges, wallets, DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, and layer-1 blockchains, including Moonbeam.

More than 100 crypto projects have shut down, gone bankrupt, or quietly disappeared in 2026, according to RootData data. The pace of failures is picking up, with four major names alone closing their doors or filing for bankruptcy in the final week of July: BitMEX, BitMart, Movement Labs, and Storj Labs.

Broad Cleanup in Crypto

The shakeout is spreading across nearly every corner of the crypto market. It is affecting exchanges, wallets, DeFi lending protocols, NFT marketplaces, and layer-1 blockchains. Even a full Polkadot parachain, Moonbeam, was permanently shut down on July 31, leaving users who had not withdrawn in time with assets stuck on the network.

Based on the market backdrop, this fits into a wider consolidation phase. In the first half of 2026, more than 60 projects had already gone under, and many of the teams affected were launched during the 2021 to 2022 and early 2025 bull runs. At the time, capital was easier to raise and user growth was faster. Now, trading volumes have cooled and funding has tightened. That matches the broader market slump: in the second quarter, the total crypto market still fell 12.6%, while volumes also declined.

Ethereum has been hit particularly hard on the layer-2 side. These networks took off in 2023 after the technology sharply cut transaction costs and made it easier to launch new chains. But as building a chain became simpler, the space got crowded fast, with plenty of general-purpose layer-2s and not much to distinguish one from another.

Token Models Are Hitting a Wall

The closures also highlight how exposed many projects were when their own token was the main funding source. Teams paid developers in tokens, used tokens to subsidize liquidity, and covered audits the same way. As long as those tokens held value, the model could keep working. But in the recent bear market, many altcoins lost 70% to 90% of their value.

Not every project disappears in a dramatic way. Tally, a DAO tooling platform that supported governance for more than 500 protocols, processed more than $1 billion (€0.9 billion) in payments and helped secure up to $80 billion (€69.4 billion) in onchain value, still ended up shutting down. Step Finance and Everclear also faded out despite real product traction or strong volumes, which suggests that usage alone is not enough if revenue does not follow.

That is what makes this wave of closures different from the 2022 crash, when Terra, Celsius, and FTX unraveled through a single chain reaction. This time, there is no one clear trigger. Instead, it looks more like a broad reset for projects that do not have enough cash flow or a clear product-market fit.

Why This Matters

For European crypto readers, the main takeaway is that market selection appears to be doing more of the work now than it did in earlier cycles. Projects that depended mostly on token prices or short-term hype have less room to bounce back, while protocols with real revenue and active users are holding up better. That makes this cleanup less dramatic than one giant collapse, but potentially more important for the market’s next phase.