Shutdown vs bankruptcy: Why crypto investors should care (2:49)
Leap Wallet didn't start as a multi-chain powerhouse.
It started with a $50,000 grant from Terraform Labs, the now-defunct R&D firm behind TerraUSD, and a narrow mandate: be the best wallet for the Terra ecosystem.
Launched in late 2021 and backed by a $3.2 million seed round co-led by CoinFund and Pantera Capital in early 2022, Leap positioned itself as the go-to gateway for LUNA staking, Terraswap trading, and Terra's flagship DeFi apps, Anchor and Mirror.
Then Terra collapsed. The May 2022 implosion, which is widely blamed for triggering that year's broader crypto market crash, wiped out the ecosystem Leap was built for almost overnight.
Rather than fold, the team pivoted, expanding support across the wider Cosmos ecosystem and eventually scaling to cover 100+ chains. It was a remarkable act of resilience.
But four years later on Good Friday, the company announced it had reached the end of the road.
Related: Stablecoin Terra 'Unpegs' from U.S. Dollar and Drops Dramatically in Value
What is Terraform Labs?
Terraform Labs was a Singapore-based blockchain company founded by Do Kwon and Daniel Shin in 2018.
It was the developer behind the Terra blockchain and its algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), which was designed to maintain its dollar peg not through cash reserves but through a complex mint-and-burn mechanism tied to its sister token, LUNA.
In May 2022, UST lost its peg in a catastrophic death spiral that wiped out approximately $40 billion in market value within days. This triggered a broader collapse in the crypto market.
Do Kwon, who became one of the industry's most-wanted figures, was arrested in Montenegro in 2023 and extradited to the United States to face fraud charges. Terraform Labs formally filed for bankruptcy in January 2024.
More News:
Goldman Sachs predicts new low for gold
Another exchange hit by $270M hack, suspends withdrawals
U.S. state pushes for crypto tax exemption
Terraform era wallet shuts shop
Leap confirmed on X op Apr. 3 that all of its products will stop working on May 28, 2026. That includes the Leap Wallet extension and mobile apps, the Compass Wallet, the Leap WebApp, Swapfast, its Cosmos Hub Validator, and Leap Cosmos Snaps.
No explicit reason was provided for the shutdown.
Until that date, core functionality such as viewing balances, sending tokens, managing staking positions, and exporting recovery phrases would remain intact.
Users are being directed to migrate to alternative wallets such as Keplr, MetaMask, Phantom, or Rabby. Because Leap is non-custodial, no assets are held by the company and everything lives on-chain.
As long as users have their recovery phrase, accessing funds through another wallet is straightforward.
Those with ATOM delegated to Leap's Cosmos Hub validator are being urged to redelegate as early as possible, given network unbonding periods.
Migration support remains available at support@leapwallet.io until the shutdown date.
Related: Exclusive: Do Kwon admits 'What I did was wrong' in $40B Terra fraud case, faces up to 25 years