In 2022, the market collapsed through fraud and leverage: Terra, Celsius, FTX. Now the mechanism is different — over 100 projects have folded in 2026 with no single trigger. The market is quietly closing out everything that was never a real business.
Most projects paid engineers in tokens and subsidized liquidity in tokens. When altcoins lost 70–90% of their value, treasuries evaporated. $1.1 billion was drained through exploits in H1 alone — one hack now equals one bankruptcy.
The survivors charge real fees:
Aave, Hyperliquid, Ether.fi. Hyperliquid and Pump.fun together account for 67% of all app-layer revenue. Ark Invest calls this the biggest consolidation in crypto history, per CoinDesk.