The worst of times is also the best of times. Projects that relied on stories and VC hype are gradually disappearing, and truly resilient builders are just getting started.

In 2025, the entire crypto industry underwent a thorough cleanup. Once, headlines about fundraising and projects backed by top institutions were everywhere, but this year, many of these star projects failed one after another. According to RootData, while the number of failed projects recorded this year did not reach the peak levels seen during the 2022 FTX collapse or the 2023 Luna crash, this wave of closures is fundamentally different — it is no longer a domino effect triggered by a single black swan event, but a comprehensive collapse of business models under real-world pressures.

The GameFi sector was hit first. Popular projects like COMBO, Nyan Heroes, and Ember Sword all shut down their servers. The NFT sector fared even worse, with trading platforms such as Royal, RECUR, and X2Y2 announcing their exit one after another. Ironically, projects supported by top-tier institutions that invested tens of millions of dollars — a16z, Polychain, Coinbase Ventures — also did not escape this disaster. Vega Protocol, which raised over $100 million, shut down its mainnet due to stagnating user growth, and valuations of projects like RECUR, valued at over $300 million, and DeFi protocols like DELV, also reached their end.

These stories point to an unavoidable reality: when investors stop buying into stories, when user growth data is fabricated, neither funding backgrounds nor technical teams can save a product. Projects that survive must be supported by genuine demand, not just hype cycles.