Layer-1 blockchain project Kadena announced it is ceasing all business operations and active network maintenance, citing adverse market conditions and an inability to sustain development.
In a statement posted via its official X account, Kadena said it is no longer able to continue business operations and will be ceasing all business activity and active maintenance of the Kadena blockchain immediately.
Despite the shutdown of its core organisation, Kadena clarified that its public blockchain will remain live, maintained by independent miners and community developers.
The market reaction was swift and devastating. The KDA token collapsed in value, falling by more than 60 % within 24 hours, with one report showing a drop from around $0.20 to below $0.10. The plunge amounts to a fall of more than 99 % from its all-time high of over $27 recorded in late 2021.
Kadena launched in 2019, founded by former JPMorgan Blockchain Centre engineers … It promoted itself as a scalable proof-of-work smart-contract network using a multichain “braided” architecture called Chainweb.
The team’s decision to shut down comes amid dwindling developer activity, weak user adoption, and severe market pull-back in the broader crypto landscape. Despite earlier high ambitions, including grant servers and ecosystem incentives, Kadena struggled to keep pace with newer proof-of-stake or modular chains.
For KDA token holders and ecosystem participants, the situation raises serious questions. The network remains operational in its decentralised form, but without a functioning central organisation to drive partnerships, upgrades or active development, the future of the protocol is uncertain.
Blockchain analysts note that Kadena’s shutdown may serve as a cautionary example for smaller chains in the current market environment, irrespective of technology, projects need resilient funding, strong traction and community governance to endure prolonged down-cycles.