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 backs potential sum might be in the range of $50200k. We will share full details and mechanics before anything is finalized. The buyback is not certain, the post read. Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens Crypto projects that have shut down, wound down, or filed for bankruptcy in 2026:JANUARYMilkyWayPixilandSound xyzNifty GatewayEntropySlingshotForgotten RuniverseFoundationFEBRUARYPolynomialZeroLendParsec FinanceStep FinanceSolana FloorRemora MarketsMARCHAngle pic.twitter.com/3gvPzsnzlF 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 hasnt 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.