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On October 21, 2025, the blockchain industry was rocked when Kadena, a Layer-1 platform that used to be very promising and was created by former JPMorgan executives, said it will stop all business and network maintenance right away.
The move, which was made because of market conditions that couldn’t be sustained, caused the native KDA token to crash by 62%, wiping out almost all of its gains over the past five years. It is now trading at about $0.078, which is 99% less than its all-time high of $28.25 in November 2021.
The decentralized proof-of-work (PoW) chain will continue to exist thanks to independent miners and community developers. However, the closing of Kadena LLC raises serious doubts about the future of mid-tier blockchains in a market that favors big players like Ethereum and Solana.
TVL fell from a high of $9 million in 2022 to $170,000, and this exit, which came after a $100 million grant program in 2022, is a warning about the difference between hype and execution. Exchanges like Bybit and OKX are starting to delist the token, which makes it harder for people to buy and sell it.
A Quick End to Dreams
The official Kadena account posted a sad X post that was seen by more than 3 million people in a few hours: “We regret to announce that the Kadena organization is no longer able to continue business operations and will be ceasing all business activity and active maintenance of the Kadena blockchain immediately.”
We are very thankful to everyone who has helped us along the way. But because of the state of the market, we can’t keep promoting and supporting the use of this unique decentralized service. The statement, which was proved to be real on Discord following initial fears of hacking, stressed the network’s independence: It is a proof-of-work (PoW) chain with smart contracts that are managed by different maintainers. It does not rely on the now-defunct LLC for consensus.
Stuart Popejoy and Will Martino, who had worked on JPMorgan’s blockchain projects, started Kadena in 2016. In 2020, the company released its mainnet with a “braided” multi-chain design that promised to be more scalable than Bitcoin while keeping PoW security.
It was called “The Blockchain for Business” and aimed to combine the stability of businesses with the freedom of decentralization. It got $15 million in investment and started a $100 million Web3 award program in 2022 to attract engineers.
However, as on-chain metrics fell—TVL dropped 98% to $170,000 by late 2025, according to DeFiLlama—the project’s treasury, which was probably full of KDA, shrank under long-term bear pressures.
The shutdown, while surprising, fits with the general trend of L1 fatigue: mid-tier networks are having a hard time competing with Ethereum’s $100 billion TVL and Solana’s 65,000 TPS as capital moves to ecosystems that have already proven themselves.
62% loss and delisting dominoes
The statement caused a lot of fear. KDA dropped 62% in 24 hours, from $0.20 to $0.078. Different sources reported decreases of 55–77%, which cut the market cap to $30.9 million—a 99.7% drop from its 2021 top. Trading volume shot up to $50 million on Binance, which had $70 million in turnover, but liquidity dried up quickly as exchanges reacted: Bybit stopped lending and borrowing KDA and perps on October 24, OKX stopped deposits on October 26, and spot pairings were delisted on October 29. OKX said “failure to meet listing standards,” which is a nice way of saying “not viable after shutdown.”
KDA’s fall is like the decline of an ecosystem: The cap went from $4 billion in 2021 to $30 million presently, and the 24-hour volume is only $48 million compared to BTC’s $95 billion. The chain’s 566 million KDA mining rewards will last until 2139, and 83.7 million will be unlocked in 2029. However, smart contracts could become useless if they are not maintained. @0xnoveleader thought, “My first blockchain was Kadena during the NFT boom—now it’s a ghost chain.” The mood in the X community turned negative, and @DegenerateNews’s post got 619,435 views and 1,449 likes, which added to the “total collapse” story.
From JPMorgan’s Dreams to a Cautionary Tale About Blockchain
Kadena’s story starts in 2016 with JPMorgan and ends in 2020 with Chainweb’s scalable PoW. It promised “business-ready blockchain” using Pact smart contracts and multi-chain “braids.” It got collaborations with Energy Web for green energy tokens and a Croatian football rewards app in 2025, but the excitement died down as Ethereum’s L2s and Solana’s speed took over its niche. The $100 million grants in 2022 didn’t do much, since TVL dropped 98% and developer activity slowed down during the 2022–2023 bears.
The stoppage, which cited “market conditions” squeezing resources, is similar to other problems with L1: Mid-tier coins like EOS and Tezos have a hard time since Ethereum has a lot of developers and Solana has a lot of transactions. CCN said that it “signals capital consolidation around largest networks, leaving mid-tier L1s exposed.” According to @Benny_mozart, it’s a “ghost chain” without core support, even though community miners and devs may keep it going.
Conclusion
Kadena’s shutdown on October 21, 2025, put an end to operations since conditions were no longer viable. This sent KDA down 62% to $0.078, a 99% drop from its 2021 peak, as delistings piled up. It failed against L1 giants, leaving a chain in miners’ hands but an ecosystem in ruins, from JPMorgan roots to PoW scalability fantasies. For crypto, there is a clear lesson: hype doesn’t last, but usefulness does. As @KDAminer worries about possible insider dumps, the community tries to figure out how to bring KDA back to life. Will it go away or rise again? This warning close, which comes after consolidation, tells people to stick to proven tracks.
