The organization behind the Kadena (KDA) blockchain announced on Tuesday the immediate closure of its operations, citing unfavorable market conditions as the primary reason. The announcement marked the end of one of the most promising projects of the 2021 cycle, which once dreamed of uniting traditional institutions and the crypto ecosystem.
“We are tremendously grateful to everyone who has participated in this journey with us. We regret that, due to market conditions, we cannot continue to promote and support the adoption of this unique decentralized offering,” the Kadena team wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The network’s native KDA token plummeted more than 59% in the last 24 hours, trading at $0.092, according to data from The Block. The collapse is dramatic when compared to the all-time high of over $27 reached at the end of 2021.
Despite the cessation of commercial activities and active maintenance, the team reported that the proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain will continue to operate as long as there are active miners and validators. According to the statement, approximately 566 million KDA are still scheduled to be distributed as mining rewards until the year 2139.
Founded in 2019 by Stuart Popejoy and William Martino, both former employees of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and JPMorgan Chase, Kadena aimed to offer a scalable and secure solution that could attract large institutions to the crypto sector. The pair had previously worked on the Kinexys project, the predecessor to JPMorgan Chase’s blockchain.
In 2024, then-executive Annelise Osborne told The Block that the company was on a “hiring spree” to revitalize the ecosystem and regain market share. In total, Kadena raised approximately $15 million across three funding rounds, but was unable to sustain growth amid the prolonged crypto winter and lack of institutional adoption.
Kadena’s closure represents another symbolic blow to layer-1 projects that emerged during the 2021 boom but failed to weather market hardships.