Let's not focus on these dead projects
By Chloe, Challenger
The encryption market in 2025 witnessed an extreme industrial paradox: according to GeckoTerminal, the total number of coins that went through the 20 million mark was more than 57%. In this cruel phase-out, a more hidden “Zombie Project” is spreading, with top capital and head exchange endorsements, high-frequency replacement hot spots, but near stagnation in actual product, technology delivery and ecological construction。
This paper will analyse the operational characteristics of suspected zombieization projects such as Sleepless AI, Hooked Protocol, Saga and Dymension. In 2026, the ability to penetrate narrative fog and identify signs of zombieization became mandatory for investors。
Is it a "closure"? Project collapse and zombieization
In the early stages of the development of the block chain, the definition of “Zombie Coins” is relatively simple: prolonged hibernation, loss of trade mobility, disappearance of development teams, lack of community participation, etc. However, with the maturity and depth of investment in the capital markets, the markets have in recent years been characterized by a far more hidden myth。
DataShowIn 2021, the GeckoTerminal went online with only 42.88 million currency projects, but by the end of 2025 that figure had soared to 20.17 million, and behind this explosive growth, up to 53 per cent of the projects were dying. At the same time, behind this high turnover and high phase-out, there are a large number of “Zombieization” projects that, while traded on the exchange, publish daily social media announcements, there is a huge gap between actual product delivery, chain activity and ecological construction。
Sleepless AI: A parasite AI narrative? Research and development and delivery faults
Sleepless AI, once a market pet, was selected not only by Binance Labs as the champion of the sixth season incubation plan, but also by the light ring of the “Web3+AI Virtual Partnership” in Launchpool No. 42. However, in 2026, its market performance ran counter to the original heat: the price of the coin was withdrawn from its historical high of $2.46 to around 0.024, a decline of 99 per cent。
1. Technology transparency and the gap in R & D progress: Although the target list builds a deep emotional support experience using AIGC and the Large Language (LLM) model, its technical dimensions appear to be overstretched. The project, observed through open channels, has almost no traceable code updating record or an iterative version of the core algorithm. Even more troubling to investors is the fact that Web Dapp, originally scheduled for Q2 in 2025, is still not progressing。
2. Ineffective implementation of mobile-end policies: In the era of “move priority” application, the landing of Sleepleps AI products appears to be relatively behind schedule. Its flagship product, HIM, was unable to successfully board the iOS App Store or Google Play store as of early 2026, and only Android APK downloads are still available on the official network. For a project that aims to achieve large-scale adoption, this development efficiency significantly limits user growth and market confidence。
3. Narrative reorganization and internal challenges: It comes with the stagnation of the product and the depth of the market questioning the nature of its project. There's something on the marketViewsIt was noted that the project was suspected of being a “discretionary reorganization” of the old Web2 game, i.e., the imposition of the heat of the AI track through the packaging AI concept and capital utilization in exchange for the flow dividend of the Binance Labs investment and Launchpool. Although such claims are mostly anonymous allegations, this phenomenon, combined with the lack of technical delivery and the collapse of currency prices, has become an important reference indicator for investors to identify suspected zombieization projects in 2026。
Hooked Protocol: Incentivizing dry ecological distress
Hooked Protocol used the Learn-to-Earn model to jump-start a foreign military on the Web3 social learning track, not only to obtain investment in Binance Labs and Sequoia China, but also to line up 29 Launchpad projects. However, as the issuance of tokens entered its mid-term stage and the subsidy dividend retreated, the project was in the harsh test of “real user retention” and “ecological gold”。
1. From Learn-to-Earn to an incentive to rely on: Hooked Protocol's initial success was largely dependent on the flow effect of the coin Launchpad and strong token subsidy mechanisms, a model that quickly traded for large user numbers at an early stage, but whenHOOK CURRENCY PRICES FELL FROM A HIGH POINT TO 99%THE GROWTH GAME THAT IS MAINTAINED BY SUBSIDIES LOSES ITS APPEAL. HISTORIC EXPERIENCE HAS REPEATEDLY SHOWN THAT AFTER TGE, WHEN INCENTIVES DISAPPEAR, THE “EXTREME NUMBER” OF USERS WHO LACK RIGID DEMAND TENDS TO SHRINK RAPIDLY。
“Dialogue” trends in narrative transitionIn 2025, Hooked tried to shift to “AI-driven learning ecology” and “education infrastructure”. Despite the official offer to develop courses with top 3-7 universities and the launch of Hooked Coursera Hub in August 2025 with more than 74 Web3 projects, these initiatives are more like “branding” at the marketing level. Compared to the bright list of cooperation, its substantive breakthroughs at the technical level appear to be poor。
The current state of Hooked Protocol reveals to some extent a central challenge for Web3 applications: If the viability of the project is based on token incentives that do not translate into commercial resilience of primary demand, it will be difficult to escape the fate of a sharp decline in the price of tokens, even zombieization. The current low currency prices and the potential decline in ecological dynamism are the negative feedback after the subsidized boom。
Saga: Lack of a double blow to market demand and security gaps
Saga represents another path to zombieization: the people who sell shovels cannot find a mine. With the ambitious vision of a “one-key hair chain”, Saga succeeded in attracting over $1,000 in financing top-level institutions such as Placeholder, GSR and Samsung Next, and also successfully went online for Phase 51 of the Binance Launchpool project. However, the powerful set of automated hair chain tools is somewhat incomprehensible under the test of real market demand。
1. Frequent “off-track” exposures of ecological anxiety: In the past two years, Saga has shown a great deal of narrative flexibility, but it has also revealed deficiencies in its ecological core. The frequent change of narratives from the original master play chain with more than 350 collaborative projects to the AI infrastructure narrative is essentially a reflection of the growth anxiety caused by the lack of ecological applications。
If its core technology, Chainlet, had real market demand, it should have been able to leverage the purchase of coins through the continued lease of developers, the reality was that Saga’s list of cooperation, though long, was still not supported by explosive projects, and that most partners had stayed in the early stages of exploration and had not been able to contribute substantial economic incentives to the agreement。
2. Deadly blow to security credibility_: For infrastructure, technological safety is the bottom line for its survival. SagaEVM was hit by a $7 million leak attack in January of this year, stabilizing the dollar D broke down to $0.75 and TVL evaporated from about $370 million to $12 million. This is undoubtedly a serious blow to projects targeting infrastructure。
WHEN GRAND NARRATIVES CANNOT BE TRANSLATED INTO ECOLOGICAL DATA, AND WHEN TECHNICAL SAFETY IS FLAWED, FEEDBACK FROM MARKETS IS OFTEN UNSTINTING, AND THE CURRENT PRICE OF ORIGINAL SAGA TOKENS HAS FALLEN FROM A HIGH OF $6 IN 2024 TO AROUND THE CURRENT LEVEL OF 0.032。
Dymension: Data Ghost City under Macro
Dymension's script is highly similar to that of Saga, whose concept of RollApp is quite attractive in theoretical terms, but more like a great ghost city in the face of actual data from 2026. Despite Dymension ' s attempts to create a pole for a modular settlement layer, its ecological viability is far from what was expected。
1. Activity fault of the RollApp networkDymension has claimed that more than 10,000 RollApps have been deployed in the ecology, but this data boom is essentially the result of a decline in the threshold of the “transit and chain” and that the vast majority of deployed RollApps have no ongoing chain trade or substantive output, or even the majority have disappeared, except for the initial issue of tokens。
2. Economic dysfunctional infrastructure: When Launchpad and the development package cannot be transformed into a dynamic digital economy, the infrastructure itself will be devalued. Dymension's main DEX projects and ecological TVL performances are not optimal, and the overall TVL is currently only US$ 1.3M, which contrasts strongly with the expectations of its “modularization tap” in the initial market。
WHEN MOST OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE IS USED BY ZOMBIES AND THE OVERALL ECOLOGICAL WATCH LINE COLLAPSES, THE ORIGINAL DYM PRICE IS BOUND TO BE FIXED BY THE MARKET. THE CURRENT FDV IS 45M, WITH A 99 PER CENT DROP FROM THE HIGH POINT OF $6, LEAVING ONLY 0.042。
Why“..ZombieIt's not the sameThere's a lot of projects
Such projects have been able to maintain their surface “lives” because of deep structural problems in the Web3 industry。
1. Power structure for capitalization: IN RECENT YEARS, THE CURRENCY PATH OF MANY PROJECTS HAS NOT BEEN DERIVED FROM A SUBSTANTIAL BREAKTHROUGH IN TECHNOLOGY, BUT HAS BEEN HIGHLY DEPENDENT ON “CAPITAL, INTEREST AND NARRATIVE PACKAGING”. THIS TYPE OF PROJECT, FACILITATED BY A COMBINATION OF VC AND INTERNAL TOP-LEVEL EFFORTS, ENTERS THE TOP OF THE EXCHANGE THROUGH EXCELLENT PACKAGING AND ABETTED TESTING NETWORK DATA, AND THE TEAM OFTEN LOSES MOMENTUM FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT ONCE THE TOKENS ARE UNLOCKED。
2. Fuzzy team backgroundSome of the zombie projects have a common feature: the background of core manipulators and technical leaders is extremely vague. This “black boxing” mode of operation not only exempts project participants from credible responsibility in the face of technical bottlenecks or security loopholes, but also provides minimal exit costs. Not only would the steering team be able to change its shell quickly after a project has reached an impasse, and secretly reset in another new narrative, but it could also exhaust market credit over and over again。
3. Narrative parasitism(b) Zombie projects often have a very strong “dissemination parasite” capability. Whenever market hotspots turn, these projects, which lack substantive progress, are often concretized through “publicity transformation”. This not only increases the cost of investor identification, but also spreads scarce liquidity among output-deficit shells, from which they can draw speculation。
Concluding remarks: Investors should look for real values in 2026
The core logic of investors must shift in the face of a prosperous market of 20 million coins. In 2026, the Zombie Identification Project was no longer a sub-section, but a defensive one. The following is a compilation of three core indicators to help readers identify:
The first is team, technology delivery validation: avoid projects that do not have a clear team background, GitHub has no submission record, road map delivery is low and product distribution is slow. Second, the amount of gold in the data: Distinguishing between “subsidized dynamic” and “native demand” to see whether the user still shows a willingness to retain after leaving the token subsidy. Finally, guard against projects that replace core tracks every three months, real innovation requires deep tillage, and frequent narrative exchanges are usually designed to cover up the failures of old operations。
The encryption market is maturing, and what the industry needs is projects that are delivered on a continuous basis, whether before or after a currency is issued, that really bring value to the industry, and that address market distress。
