Current Status of Web3 Projects: 200 Projects Cease Updates Monthly, Only 70 New Ones Added

Recently, pessimistic sentiment in the cryptocurrency market has continued to spread. The "2026 Compilation of Dead Projects in the Crypto Industry" released by RootData has sparked concentrated discussions in the industry about the wave of project closures, becoming a core reflection of current market sentiment and intuitively confirming that the crypto industry is entering a new round of deep reshuffling.

After the release of this compilation, it quickly gained widespread dissemination and interpretation from industry media and leading KOLs both domestically and internationally. Mainstream crypto media such as Coindesk, Cointelegraph, CryptoSlate, ChainCatcher, Wu Blockchain, PAnews, Techflow, as well as dozens of leading crypto KOLs like Mr. Blockchain, BITWU, Ai Yi, alvin617, Crypto Sister, Solitary Crane, Cheshire, Benjieming, and Coin World King, have all shared their views and engaged in in-depth discussions on the X platform and their own channels, making "crypto dead projects" one of the core topics in the industry online.

In light of such high market attention, RootData believes it is necessary to publicly disclose the statistical methodology behind this "death list" and share our thoughts on the current clearing wave in the crypto industry based on data.

1. Criteria for Determining Dead Projects

In data statistics, clear standards and rigorous logic are prerequisites for ensuring the reference value of the data.

Unlike the subjective methods used by the market to determine project death based solely on "rumors" and "public sentiment," RootData has established a standardized determination system based on automated tracking and manual verification, focusing on official announcements and objective operational behaviors of projects. Three major criteria for determining death have been defined, and all listed projects have undergone dual verification to minimize misjudgments and errors. The specific determination rules are as follows:

• The project party announces the cessation of operations or complete bankruptcy on their official website or social media.
• The project party has not made any updates on their official website and social media such as X and Discord for more than six months.
• The official website and social media accounts of the project party cannot be accessed or have been canceled.

Among these, projects that are classified as dead based on the first criterion account for no more than 20% of the statistics; those from the third criterion account for no more than 10%. Since there is no exact date of death, we will only change their status to "ceased operations" and will not include them in the compilation of dead projects for any specific year. Projects classified as dead based on the second criterion account for over 70%, which is also the mainstream form of project exit in the industry.

For long-term silent projects, RootData has established a regular monitoring mechanism: the system automatically tracks the update times of project X accounts across the internet. For suspicious projects that have not updated for over six months, an automatic manual verification process is triggered to check the operational status across all dimensions, including official website dynamics, blog announcements, GitHub code submissions, community operations, etc., excluding special cases such as "temporary pauses in updates or silent version iterations" to ensure accurate determinations.

This tracking method is also the main reason why the number of projects in the 2026 death project compilation is significantly lower than that in the 2025 and 2024 compilations: many projects that stopped updating social media from February to June this year have not yet exceeded six months of inactivity, and therefore have not been included in the death project category.

As of now, the number of dead projects in 2026 is 124, while the number of dead projects in 2024 and 2025 has exceeded 400. However, it can be expected that as time progresses, a large wave of projects will be included in the death project category by the end of the year, potentially setting a record for the number of dead projects in history.

In addition, some situations that are typically considered as project deaths do not actually meet the determination criteria. For example, in late July this year, Movement Labs (MVMT), the original core development company of the Movement blockchain, announced its application for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Delaware bankruptcy court, which was interpreted by the outside world as the death of Movement. However, the company applying for bankruptcy now has no substantial connection to the Movement blockchain, as the Movement development company has been under the responsibility of Move Industries for six months.

The decentralized storage protocol Storj also applied for Chapter 11 reorganization in the U.S. Northern District of West Virginia bankruptcy court in July this year, but this does not mean the project has ceased operations; its main goal is to resolve early legacy debts while the company continues to operate.

The original Polkadot parachain Moonbeam blockchain announced its official shutdown in July this year, but the Moonbeam project itself has not ceased operations; instead, it has transformed into a decentralized AI Agent communication and settlement network. The GLMR token will be migrated to Base at a 1:1 ratio, becoming a native ERC-20 token. Therefore, Moonbeam does not meet the criteria for being marked as ceased operations.

In short, the core criteria for determining dead projects by RootData are: the project ecosystem is completely stagnant, the team has ceased operations, and there are no ongoing iterations. Simple changes in the entity, business transformations, or debt restructurings are not considered as project deaths.

2. Observations and Thoughts on Dead Projects

Among the over 20,000 crypto projects currently recorded by RootData, approximately 12,000 have X accounts that are not canceled. If we use the behavior of posting tweets in August as a standard for determining project activity, the current number of active projects in the crypto market is about 2,200. If we extend the time frame to 6-8 months, the number of active projects is approximately 3,400.

However, some projects that have not updated their tweets in a timely manner may simply have reduced their tweeting frequency due to market conditions. Some crypto projects that do not update their tweets are still active on other social media platforms such as GitHub, LinkedIn, and blogs, and some crypto projects do not have Twitter accounts. Therefore, this statistical indicator cannot accurately reflect the number of active projects in the crypto market, but it still constitutes a very referential indicator—it at least outlines the shrinking profile of the industry's "speaking entities," and the willingness to speak is often positively correlated with team confidence and resource investment.

Further statistics on the number of projects that stop updating tweets each month show that this number is rapidly increasing month by month, remaining above 200 since the beginning of this year.

At the same time, the number of new projects recorded by RootData each month this year is between 70 and 100. By comparing these two data sets, it can be seen that since mid-2025, the number of active projects in the crypto sector has entered a "net decline" state, with the scale of new projects entering the market far from covering the scale of old projects exiting.

Undoubtedly, with the mergers and expansions of more and more crypto giants and the entry of different internet and financial giants, the golden period for crypto startups has passed. Instead of focusing on the number of dead projects, we should pay more attention to the quality and quantity of new projects.

The mass clearance of dead projects is a passive purification of the industry cycle, while the continuous emergence of quality new projects and the iterative landing of new narratives are the core driving forces for the industry to break through the bear market and achieve a new round of growth.

In the new projects recently recorded by RootData, the proportion of infrastructure projects is significantly decreasing to less than 10%, indicating that the new batch of crypto projects will increasingly focus on the application layer or distribution layer, rather than directly competing with existing infrastructure.

Data shows that the proportion of new projects related to prediction markets and their tools, RWA cards, tokenized stocks, perpetual contracts, AI agents, and memecoin projects has exceeded 65%.

With the significant decline in VC investment, more and more startup projects need to rely on the founding team's own support or cash flow driven by the project's own business in the early stages. This may force new projects to be more pragmatic in their business models—from "burning money for growth" to "validating unit economics before expansion," shifting from chasing narrative hotspots to deeply cultivating segmented demands.

Although short-term pain is inevitable, this "forced self-discipline" may filter out teams that truly possess business resilience, reserving healthier seeds for the next cycle.

The crypto industry has never lacked periodic booms and busts. Death is a part of the life cycle and a catalyst for ecological iteration. RootData will continue to uphold the principles of objectivity, neutrality, and data-driven insights, recording and witnessing every iteration and evolution of the Web3 industry.

This content is provided for general informational purposes only and doesn't constitute financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. Any events, rewards, online promotions, or related information mentioned herein should not be considered a recommendation, solicitation, or invitation to purchase, sell, trade, or otherwise deal in any crypto assets. Crypto assets are highly volatile and may result in loss. The availability of WEEX services, products, and related events may vary by region. You are responsible for ensuring that your participation is in accordance with applicable local laws and regulations.