DeFi cut the tide: they all had perfect technology and died with dignity

Ignas

Photo by Chopper, Foresight News

Over the past two months, at least 10 encryption protocols have been declared closed. Not running away, but without users, without money or without either。

Not to mention BlockFilles, a mining company, a borrowing platform that freezes withdrawals. Only yesterday, Angle also announced (https://x.com/AngleProtocol/status/2029161515558011263) the phasing out of EURA and USDA stabilization coins, despite their combined lock value of $250 million (TVL) and good business cooperation。

In the announcement, Angle went straight, "Go to the central stabilization track has completely changed." There is no need to specifically maintain an independent infrastructure in the form of a brand packaging of existing treasury and lending agreements

Almost all of these shut-down projects have functioning products:

• Polynomial cumulative transaction volume of $4 billion, covering over 70 markets
• MilkyWay TVL was $250 million
• Step Finance's monthly active user peak reached 300,000

I've used these products, at least I've experienced them. Technology is fine, but no one is willing to pay for the project to survive。

MilkyWay is a typical representative: less than two years and four transformations. First, the Celestia mobile pledge, then the re-commitment, the RWA monetization, and the encrypted debit card that pays for the rent... every transition follows the hot spots。

They're about re-submittingDescriptionIT'S SO SWEET, "WE SAW THE RE-ADMITTANCE OPPORTUNITY EARLY IN THE DAY, WE DESIGNED THE SYSTEM, THE TVL RAN TO $250 MILLION, AND THE SECURITY AUDIT WAS DONE, READY TO GO ONLINE. AS A RESULT, THE MARKET ABANDONS THE RE-COMMITMENT FASTER THAN EVERYONE WOULD HAVE EXPECTED.”

Finally, it can only be admitted that funds will not last the day when market convergence points for products are found。

Polynomial TeamReason for FailureIt's very straightforward, and it's a lesson for all the sustainable contracts: "In the field of derivatives, technology is useless." We have improved the speed of implementation, optimized user experience and built innovative infrastructure, but none of this has helped. Dealers only go where there's mobility, we don't. The rest is the function of the flower whistle."

The conclusion is even harsher: "Migration is the only moat of derivatives. You can't beat mobility with innovation, you can't beat mobility with marketing, you can't beat mobility with development."

The closure of ZeroLend sounded the alarm for decentrized applications that tried to start on multiple block chains. They were bet on small block block support projects such as Manta, Zircuit and Xlayer, but the markets turned around and the chains were not mobile and the services of the prophesies ceased。

Finally, the long-term loss of operation could not be sustained。

Aave has also recently voted to shut down several chains of services, again for reasons of running at a loss。

And Parsec, which used to track decoupling tools, Terra, 3AC, steth. But the team admitted that "after the FTX thunderstorm, DeFi cashed, borrowed, leveraged and never returned to the way it used to be." Markets change, chains change, we don't really understand."

In short, the market has turned, and we are still here. The market is cruel。

Slingshot was completely shut down after the takeover. Eden cut off 80% of the non-profit product, leaving only core business。

And as they say, "The 80/20 law has become a reality, and the product that we pay 80% of the cost only brings 20% of the income."

Finally, Step Finance was special: $26 million was stolen on 31 January and died directly. "Tryed to finance, bought, all failed."

What are the common denominators of these death projects? They have not been able to adapt to changing markets and have been underfunded in order to transform again。

Each team is bet on a particular ecosystem that is booming, but the result is either not fast enough or not at all. Celestia DeFi has never really developed, and chain derivatives are hard to compete with Hyperliquid, and even old platforms like dydx and GMX are hard to reach。

It is costly to expand into new chains and narratives。

For players like me, moving money from one platform to another is easy and cheap. However, applications require more time and financial resources to prepare for potential new user groups。

The good news is, these are "decent deaths." All projects provide time withdrawals to users, and teams do not run away and don ' t miscarry. Compared to 2022, the industry did learn to die responsibly。