Kadena Shuts Down as KDA Token Crashes 60%, Marking a 99% Fall From Peak
Kadena - once touted as “the blockchain for business” - has made the not so surprising announcement that it's shutting down its operations.
Quick overview
- Kadena has announced the shutdown of its operations due to unsustainable market conditions and declining adoption.
- The value of KDA plummeted over 60% in 24 hours, marking a 99% decline from its all-time high in 2021.
- Despite the company's closure, the Kadena blockchain will continue to operate through independent miners and a new software update.
- Kadena's struggle highlights the volatility and challenges faced by blockchain projects, even those with significant backing.
Kadena – once touted as “the blockchain for business” – has made the not so surprising announcement that it’s shutting down its operations. Unsustainable market conditions and waning adoption are the reasons they’ve cited in a post on X, saying they just can’t keep the lights on or maintain the corporate framework of the Kadena blockchain any more.
News of the shutdown sent shockwaves through the market. KDA plummeted more than 60% in 24 hours, dropping to $0.089 – that’s a staggering 99% decline from its all-time high of $27.64 back in 2021, according to CoinGecko.
“We’re really sorry to say that the Kadena organisation can no longer carry on with business as usual,” the company said in a statement, thanking all the people out there who’ve supported it over the years.
Kadena had positioned itself as a proof-of-work blockchain that would bridge enterprise use cases with the benefits of being decentralised, but sadly it just never took off in the way they’d hoped.
Network Can Keep Rolling Along
Even though the company’s done for, the Kadena blockchain will keep going – thanks to its network of independent miners who will keep it running.
As a proof-of-work (PoW) network, Kadena can keep on trucking without any need for a central authority looking over it (just like Bitcoin and Ethereum when they were starting out).
Developers said they’d be releasing a new version of the software that will keep the network up and running smoothly, and urged people running the nodes to get the upgrade as soon as they can.
Founded by JPMorgan old-timers Stuart Popejoy and William Martino, Kadena launched its mainnet in January 2020 with a grand plan to marry enterprise-grade performance with the security of a decentralised system. However, user activity and liquidity started to dwindle rapidly in 2023 and 2024 as other ecosystems started to get more traction.
Revival Efforts and Grants for Developers
It’s been pretty clear for a while now that Kadena was struggling. In 2022, the company launched a $100 million grant program to try and attract more Web3 developers, with the aim of stealing a march on Solana and Ethereum. Then in 2024, they followed up with an even bigger programme – a $50 million Leap Grant Program designed to give the whole ecosystem a bit of a kick up the pants. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out as planned.
At one point, Kadena’s Total Value Locked (TVL) was a pretty respectable $9 million, and they’d projected a fully diluted valuation of $6.5 billion – numbers that are now sadly in the past. Daily trading volume is currently around $48 million, which is a fraction of what’s happening with Bitcoin and Ethereum.
As the organisation winds down, they’ve said they’ll be working with the Kadena community to figure out what happens to all the tokens that are locked up and haven’t been mined.
Kadena’s fall from being a high-profile JPMorgan project to being shut down is a pretty stark reminder that even with a lot of funding behind you, blockchain ventures can still come a cropper in an industry that’s characterised by rapid innovation, shifting narratives, and – of course – some pretty brutal volatility.
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