DeFi Crisis Deepens: Everclear and ZERO Network Shutdowns Add to 2026 Closures

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Everclear and ZERO Network Shutdowns Add to Growing List of 2026 DeFi Closures

Everclear and ZERO Network announced shutdowns this week, marking the latest casualties of accelerating closures in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) space in 2026.

The announcements come amid a broader market downturn that has pressured crypto companies.

Everclear and ZERO Cite Different Pressures

In a post on X, Everclear said the project was built around a solver model for rebalancing cross-chain funds. The segment never gained enough commercial depth, with users heavily focused on price. Monthly volume reached $500 million, but that activity did not produce sustainable revenue.

Everclear pivoted to a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) model over the past six months, signing on several major industry partners. The team said it underestimated partner onboarding timelines, and the runway ran out before deals went live.

“If funds remain after all liabilities are settled, we are exploring a buyback of existing tokens — the sum of the buy back’s potential sum might be in the range of $50–200k. We will share full details and mechanics before anything is finalized. The buyback is not certain,” the post read.

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Crypto projects that have shut down, wound down, or filed for bankruptcy in 2026:

JANUARY
MilkyWay
Pixiland
Sound xyz
Nifty Gateway
Entropy
Slingshot
Forgotten Runiverse
Foundation

FEBRUARY
Polynomial
ZeroLend
Parsec Finance
Step Finance
Solana Floor
Remora Markets

MARCH
Angle…

— Satoshi Club (@esatoshiclub) May 21, 2026

ZERO Network framed its closure as a strategic refocus by Zerion on its wallet and application programming interface (API). The team stated that bridging into ZERO has been disabled, while bridging out remains open until July 31.

“The vision we set out to build hasn’t changed. How we deliver it is evolving. The team, the talent, and everything we learned from ZERϴ is being channeled into building the best wallet and data API experience in crypto, across every chain,” the team added.

The firms join a growing list of protocols shutting down in 2026. Syndicate Labs wound down on May 21 after five years, citing fundamental shifts in the rollup market.

Fantasy.top also added itself to the list, telling users it would close at the end of June after two years of operations. The closures span from infrastructure layers to consumer-facing apps, signaling broad DeFi consolidation.

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2026-05-22 11:54