So far, 84 L2 projects have officially announced that they are shutting down.
More than 200 others haven’t made an announcement.
But even more have “died” quietly, without a word.
Of those 200-plus L2s, perhaps only half are still active in the market.
Fewer than one in ten are widely known.
Fewer than one in a hundred are still attracting attention in the secondary market.
In the past, Ethereum showed the industry that L2s were the way forward → VCs and project teams joined forces → airdrop campaigns built community expectations → further fundraising → exchange listings.
Now, building an L2 no longer automatically means it’s the right move. VCs have shifted their focus to AI, project teams are finding it increasingly difficult to make money in Web3, and the number of people willing to participate in airdrop campaigns has plummeted.
So some projects are shutting down, while others are changing direction.
Seed-stage projects used to have a path to listing on top-tier exchanges. But after a full market cycle, what’s clear is that two leading exchanges have sharply reduced their listing frequency.
As a result, more projects that can’t establish a viable business model or attract customers—and bring in outside capital—before Series A will end up in the same cycle: running out of funds, then shutting down.
From what I understand, the OTC market is also extremely sluggish right now. Previously, project teams could use it to exit more quickly. Now, the pool of capital available through this exit route has shrunk dramatically.
When exchanges collapsed in the past, we could clearly feel that “winter was coming.”
This wave of shutdowns and delistings is a different kind of painful silence—the loudest sound is the one that makes no sound.
More than 200 others haven’t made an announcement.
But even more have “died” quietly, without a word.
Of those 200-plus L2s, perhaps only half are still active in the market.
Fewer than one in ten are widely known.
Fewer than one in a hundred are still attracting attention in the secondary market.
In the past, Ethereum showed the industry that L2s were the way forward → VCs and project teams joined forces → airdrop campaigns built community expectations → further fundraising → exchange listings.
Now, building an L2 no longer automatically means it’s the right move. VCs have shifted their focus to AI, project teams are finding it increasingly difficult to make money in Web3, and the number of people willing to participate in airdrop campaigns has plummeted.
So some projects are shutting down, while others are changing direction.
Seed-stage projects used to have a path to listing on top-tier exchanges. But after a full market cycle, what’s clear is that two leading exchanges have sharply reduced their listing frequency.
As a result, more projects that can’t establish a viable business model or attract customers—and bring in outside capital—before Series A will end up in the same cycle: running out of funds, then shutting down.
From what I understand, the OTC market is also extremely sluggish right now. Previously, project teams could use it to exit more quickly. Now, the pool of capital available through this exit route has shrunk dramatically.
When exchanges collapsed in the past, we could clearly feel that “winter was coming.”
This wave of shutdowns and delistings is a different kind of painful silence—the loudest sound is the one that makes no sound.