Crypto researcher Stacy Muur published on October 20, 2026 a compilation of 82 crypto projects that shut down in 2026, reports Journal du Coin. Decentralised finance, infrastructure, games and digital wallets all feature on her list. The causes differ: hacks, depleted treasuries, insufficient activity or the abandonment of a product.
The underlying finding fits in one sentence: attracting capital is not enough to build a lasting service. A fundraising round, a community or a tradable token are no substitute for regular users, revenue or well-managed security. That is the reading Journal du Coin offers of this compilation.
Crypto projects shut down in 2026: very different causes
Behind the figure of 82, the trajectories have little in common. Journal du Coin cites several cases from the list, each illustrating a distinct path to closure.
| Project | What happened | Stated cause |
|---|---|---|
| Blast | Network built on top of Ethereum, more than $2 billion in deposits; shutdown announced in early October 2026 | No credible path to economic viability |
| Step Finance | Portfolio tracking platform on Solana; its treasury wallets were hacked in late January, shutdown announced in February | Loss of treasury after a hack |
| Radiant Capital | Gradual wind-down announced in June, according to Cointelegraph | No recovery after an attack suffered in 2024 |
| Satori Finance | Activity discontinued | Revenue became insufficient |
| Polygon zkEVM | Main sequencer shut down in early July; an interface remains open to claim funds | Shutdown of one specific network, not of all of Polygon |
The case of Blast is the most telling. More than $2 billion in deposits was not enough: its team no longer saw a credible path to viability. The sums entrusted by users are not revenue, and they do not fund operations.
Step Finance shows the other extreme. Here the shock came from a hack. After losing its treasury, the platform looked for funding or a buyer, then gave up. The shutdown also affects its associated businesses, Remora Markets and SolanaFloor.
A security incident can also weigh for years. Radiant Capital never recovered from an attack suffered in 2024, and announced its gradual closure in June 2026. The hack of Cysic's cross-chain bridge on October 17, 2026 is a reminder that this risk remains current.
Crypto bankruptcy or simple product shutdown?
The word "closure" covers distinct realities. The closure of a product does not always mean the disappearance of the company or its token, Journal du Coin points out.
Polygon zkEVM is a case in point. The shutdown concerns that specific network, not Polygon as a whole. For a holder, the difference matters: a company that is still active can maintain access to funds, as Polygon does with its claims interface.
Conversely, a token can keep trading even though the service it was meant to serve has closed. In its analysis of memecoins, Journal du Coin noted that a listing does not guarantee sufficient liquidity. The displayed price is not the amount actually recoverable in a sale. This finding, drawn from the Coin Metrics study on the fall of memecoins, also applies to the token of a project that has shut down.
What Stacy Muur's list does not say
The figure of 82 is not an official count. It corresponds to the scope chosen by Stacy Muur, who does not claim to cover the whole industry. When she says she has never seen such a situation, she is speaking from her own experience, not of a record measured with a consistent method.
Other tallies exist, with other criteria. Research by DeFiLlama, reported by CCN, had already counted 100 shutdown announcements by August 2026, including strategic pivots. The two lists cannot be added together. Nor do they make it possible to measure an acceleration in closures.
Crypto risk: what it means for a holder in Switzerland
The subject concerns a growing public. According to a study by the IFZ, an institute of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts based in Zug, 18% of the more than 1700 people surveyed in Switzerland in the first quarter of 2026 held cryptocurrencies. That is 7 points more than in 2024.
For a token holder or the user of an affected service, Journal du Coin boils the question down to three concrete points:
- is the service still running?
- is a team maintaining it?
- do the funds remain accessible, for example through a withdrawal interface like Polygon's?
Recourse, for its part, appears limited. Journal du Coin mentions no compensation scheme for users of the projects cited. The Cysic affair also shows the limits of a response: the foundation froze 2.8 million CYS tokens, but this freeze does not recover the assets already sold by the attacker. Cysic has not specified any compensation.
On the Swiss side, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) sets a framework for intermediaries. According to FINMA and cryptocurrencies, a service that provides wallets or trades cryptocurrencies is subject to the Anti-Money Laundering Act. It must join a self-regulatory organisation. The FINMA website also publishes an "Authorised institutions" section and a "Warnings" section.
Finally, FINMA distinguishes between direct purchase and a regulated product. In authorising the first Swiss bitcoin ETF, announced on October 20, 2026, it considered that the rules of the Financial Services Act (FinSA) protect investors better than a direct purchase of cryptocurrencies. It nevertheless points out that the capital invested can lose a significant part of its value, even through an authorised product.
What we don't know yet
- Journal du Coin does not detail the 82 names on the list: it is not known whether any Swiss providers are among them.
- None of the sources consulted puts a figure on the Swiss holders affected by these closures.
- The amounts left locked in the projects that have shut down are not known.
- In the absence of a common method across the tallies, there is nothing to say whether 2026 marks a record.
