Loopring, Ethereum’s earliest zero-knowledge (zk) rollup and a long-running decentralized exchange (DEX) built on zk proofs, has announced the shutdown of its DEX and automated market maker (AMM). In a post published on X on Sunday, the team said trading services will end immediately and that relayer operations will also halt.

Loopring’s developers framed the decision as the end of an “inevitable” path: the protocol, they argued, never achieved meaningful adoption; the team lacked the business-development skills needed to scale; and newer zkEVM-based rollup designs have left its specialized architecture increasingly obsolete.

Key takeaways

• Loopring will close its DEX/AMM and stop relayer services effective immediately, ending trading on the platform.
• The team cites limited adoption, a gap in business development execution, and technological displacement by newer zkEVM rollups.
• Loopring already shut down its wallet services in July 2025, and the DEX closure follows that earlier contraction.
• Loopring says it will reconcile user balances and distribute funds directly to users’ Ethereum wallets in batches while covering gas fees.
• L2Beat data shows Loopring’s total value locked (TVL) fell to about $8 million, down nearly 99% from its November 2021 peak.

Shutdown announced: DEX, AMM and relayer go dark

Loopring’s announcement, made via an X post on Sunday, specifically ended three parts of its offering: its DEX and AMM trading services, plus the relayer that supports the system. The team described the move as a “graceful” exit, emphasizing that continuing to run a service that no longer matches market expectations would be worse than ending it.

After the closure, Loopring said it would calculate and publish all final user balances. The next step, according to the post, is direct distribution to users’ Ethereum wallets. The team also said it will handle gas fees during these payouts and complete transfers in batches.

Why Loopring says it failed to keep up

Loopring’s reasoning was both technical and operational. In its post, the team acknowledged that the project “never gained meaningful adoption.” It tied that outcome to the original design choice of being an early zk rollup without a virtual machine, which it said limited composability and reduced real-world payment and application use cases.

The developers also said the organization’s capabilities did not align with what the ecosystem later required. Loopring described itself as “engineers at heart,” noting that while the team excelled at writing code, it did not develop the “passion or skills for business development” necessary to grow as the market matured.

Technological change, however, was central to the argument. Loopring said competitors built on modern approaches—described as “fully compatible with Ethereum smart contracts”—have compounded the gap. In that context, it said its “specialised architecture now feels obsolete,” making a discontinued service a preferable outcome to maintaining an inactive or hollow platform.

Earlier milestones—then a shrinking rollup market

Loopring’s history helps explain why the closure resonates beyond a single product. The project was a technical pioneer when zk rollups were still being validated. The team has pointed to its 2017 initial coin offering that raised $45 million, alongside its role in demonstrating that Ethereum scaling via zk proofs was feasible.

But the same early “first mover” status can become a liability as the sector standardizes around features modern builders expect—especially a general-purpose execution environment and compatibility patterns that make deployment and composition easier. Loopring said later successors helped it inspire, including zkSync, Scroll, and StarkNet, ultimately brought more capable designs.

Loopring’s token and usage trajectory also mirrored broader shifts. According to L2Beat, Loopring’s total value locked is about $8 million. The same data shows TVL down nearly 99% from roughly $760 million at its November 2021 peak. L2Beat tracking also indicates that Loopring’s native token, LRC, fell by a similar magnitude—down to about $0.01 from its all-time high of $3.75 in that same month of November 2021.

One of Loopring’s better-known milestones was a partnership with GameStop in 2021 to support GameStop’s NFT platform, which launched the following year. The DEX shutdown suggests that, while parts of the ecosystem may have found moments of traction, the core trading infrastructure did not remain competitive as the rollup landscape shifted.

Broader closures and what to watch next

Loopring’s exit lands amid a wider wave of operational wind-downs in crypto. The article cites that more than 60 crypto projects and protocols had already shuttered services in 2026, according to RootData, and points to additional closures referenced in earlier coverage—such as Syndicate Labs, which reportedly shut down after five years citing a shrinking rollup market.

For users, the immediate priority is the settlement process. Loopring says it will reconcile final balances and distribute funds directly to users’ Ethereum wallets, covering gas fees during batch payouts. Readers should watch for the team’s published balance calculations and confirm that their wallet addresses are included correctly in the settlement queue.

More broadly, Loopring’s closure underlines a key shift for Ethereum scaling businesses: early technical novelty is not enough to sustain a product if adoption fails to materialize and newer architectures outcompete with stronger compatibility and developer ecosystems. Investors and builders should monitor how remaining rollup-focused services position their technical roadmaps—particularly around execution environments and how effectively they convert protocol capability into sustained user demand.

Ethereum’s first zero-knowledge rollup, Loopring, announced Sunday the closure of its decentralized exchange and automated market maker, ending all trading services and halting the relayer effective immediately.

In a post on X on Sunday, the team cited three main reasons for the closure: its failure to gain meaningful adoption, a lack of business development skills and being technologically surpassed by modern zkEVM solutions.

“To be honest, Loopring never gained meaningful adoption,” the team said. “As the first zk-rollup, we lacked a virtual machine – no composability, no real‑world payment use cases. That limitation kept our ecosystem from growing.”

Loopring was a technical pioneer of its time, raising $45 million in a 2017 initial coin offering and helping to prove that scaling Ethereum via zk-rollups was viable. But technology evolves fast in the crypto industry, and it was ultimately surpassed by the more capable successors it helped inspire, such as zkSync, Scroll and StarkNet.

The team said they are “engineers at heart,” not business operators, excelling at writing code but never developing the “passion or skills for business development.”

“External pressures – including major exchange delistings of LRC in 2026 – only accelerated the inevitable,” they said. 

The team added that pressure from more advanced competitors, which are fully compatible with Ethereum smart contracts, “while our specialised architecture now feels obsolete,” compounded the decision to gracefully end it, “rather than running a hollow service.”

Loopring had already shut down its wallet services in July 2025, citing scaling challenges. 

Related: Syndicate Labs winds down after 5 years, citing shrinking rollup market

With the DEX closure, the team said it will be calculating and publishing all final user balances, then distributing funds directly to users’ Ethereum wallets in batches and covering gas fees. 

Loopring’s total value locked is about $8 million, down almost 99% from the $760 million peak in November 2021, according to L2Beat. Its native token, LRC, has collapsed by a similar amount to $0.01 from its all-time high in the same month of $3.75. 

Loopring’s total value locked has collapsed over the past five years. Source: L2Beat

One of Loopring’s biggest milestones was a 2021 partnership with GameStop to power its NFT platform, launched the following year. 

Crypto winter bites deep this year

The demise of Loopring adds to the growing list of crypto closures this year, as the bear market deepens and previous-cycle narratives no longer apply. 

More than 60 crypto projects and protocols have already shuttered services in 2026, according to RootData. Some of the more notable ones include a16z-backed decentralized self-custody solution Entropy, app-chain infrastructure protocol Syndicate and AI blockchain platform Yupp.

Magazine: Bitcoin slides to $58K, XRP hits $1 but onchain data promising: Market Moves

Crypto treasury company Sharplink, which resumed buying Ether last week after an eight-month pause, has bought a total of $62.4 million worth of Ether since Thursday. 

Onchain data from Arkham shows that after Sharplink bought 5,000 ETH on Thursday, it bought another 5,000 ETH (worth $7.9 million) on Friday, followed by 29,196 ETH (worth $46.7 million) across three over-the-counter transactions on Saturday. 

Source: Lookonchain

The three-day buying spree adds to evidence that Sharplink has revived its active Ether accumulation strategy. The crypto treasury company was once a close competitor to Bitmine as the world’s largest ETH treasury company. 

Sharplink declined to comment on the reason and timing of the Ether purchase when first contacted on Thursday. 

Sharplink backs Ethlabs

However, the purchases came the same week that both Bitmine and Sharplink backed a new research and development nonprofit that aims to make Ethereum ready for institutional use. 

Sharplink said on Monday that the organization, Ethlabs, was formed to “ready Ethereum for the next phase of institutional adoption,” with the company joining Bitmine, Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin and other Ethereum contributors in backing the initiative. 

Related: Sharplink, Forward Industries among crypto firms considered for Russell indexes

“As stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, funds and autonomous AI commerce move on-chain, they are converging on Ethereum as the neutral, credibly permissionless settlement layer for the global economy,” Sharplink said. “Ethlabs exists to ensure the network is ready to absorb that demand at scale.”

Ether slump

The purchases also come as the cryptocurrency is down 22.8% month-on-month, and nearly 50% compared to the start of the year, allowing Tether stablecoin USDt (USDT) to briefly surpass Ether in market capitalization last week. 

Meanwhile, US spot Ether ETFs recorded their seventh week of outflows last week, recording $12.9 million in net outflows, driven mainly by withdrawals from BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA). 

Magazine: Bitcoin slides to $58K, XRP hits $1 but onchain data promising: Market Moves

Bitcoin (BTC) continued its battle to reclaim $60,000 into the weekend as chart cues fueled hopes of a recovery. 

Key points:

• Bitcoin RSI signals spark comparisons to the end of the 2022 bear market as a bullish divergence filters through.
• Analysis sees “encouraging” evidence of buyers defending the market at $60,000.
• Some traders still see new lows coming, but these could take until August.

Analysis on Bitcoin RSI: “It’s 2022 again”

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD cooling volatility after returning above the $60,000 mark.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

A series of higher swing lows on hourly time frames combined with encouraging readings from the relative strength index (RSI) indicator.

On the four-hour chart, a bullish divergence was occurring, where RSI makes higher lows while price makes lower lows. This caught the attention of market participants, who began to anticipate a BTC price reversal as a result.

“Once you see it, you can’t unsee it,” they wrote in a post on X. 

“It’s 2022 again.”

BTC/USD one-week chart with RSI data. Source: Rod/X

At the time, a weekly RSI bullish divergence kicked in while BTC/USD set its bear-market low of $15,600 — an event that subsequently provided a durable market floor.

Four-hour RSI, meanwhile, fell to just 11.4 at the start of June, marking one of its lowest levels on record.

BTC/USD four-hour chart with RSI data. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

On Friday, crypto analyst Lukasz Wydra added daily time frames to the mix of RSI bull signals.

“The bullish RSI divergence on the Bitcoin chart has now been officially confirmed. It may still deepen, but at the same time we can clearly see that Binance continues to defend the price,” he told X followers.

Wydra described the RSI signals as an “encouraging sign.”

BTC/USD one-day chart. Source: Lukasz Wydra/X

New BTC price lows remain popular target

Other traders stuck to existing predictions of further downside pressure entering sooner or later.

Related: BTC price four-year trend calls for $76K as analysis says Bitcoin ‘not broken’

Niels Klaver, cofounder of crypto platform STABL Agency, repeated calls for a trip to $55,000 “before any big move” to change the status quo.

BTC/USD comparison. Source: Niels Klaver/X

Trader and analyst Rekt Capital suggested that a relief bounce could characterize the market next month thanks to July typically contrasting with June price action.

Once it confirmed the 50-month exponential moving average (EMA) as new resistance, BTC/USD would then see “August cancellation of relief and additional downside due to $60k weakening as support,” he wrote this week.

BTC/USD one-month chart with 21, 50EMA. Source: Rekt Capital/X

Prediction markets are quietly becoming a new on-ramp to crypto. A 90-day Bitget Wallet study tracking onchain activity from 857,000 active Polymarket users found that about 60% of people who placed their first World Cup bets on the platform had never interacted with blockchain protocols before.

Separately, US crypto policy is still moving—albeit amid political crosswinds—after Donald Trump canceled the signing ceremony for a housing bill that includes a ban on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Meanwhile, Ethereum’s ecosystem is seeing fresh institutional positioning efforts, including new research-and-development backing aimed at supporting the network’s next adoption phase.

Key takeaways

• Bitget Wallet data suggests prediction markets can draw first-time crypto users without requiring prior blockchain familiarity.
• Trump’s delay of a housing bill highlights how CBDC-related provisions may remain entangled with broader US legislative priorities.
• New backing for an Ethereum R&D nonprofit, Ethlabs, targets “institutional adoption” readiness as ecosystem funding concerns persist.
• Crypto market coverage this week also pointed to growing scrutiny of US regulatory proposals and ongoing pressure on large holders’ liquidity management.

Prediction markets as a practical crypto on-ramp

According to the Bitget Wallet study, roughly six in ten Polymarket users who made their first World Cup bets had no prior experience with blockchain protocols. That pattern matters because onboarding into crypto has historically focused on teaching users the mechanics—wallets, custody, signing transactions—or at least easing those steps through better interfaces.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Bitget Wallet COO Alvin Kan said earlier onboarding approaches often assumed users would still need to learn how crypto works before they could participate. Prediction markets, he argued, change the incentive: users arrive because they already have a view about what could happen in the real world, and the crypto component becomes secondary to the outcome betting.

“Prediction markets shifted that dynamic. Users show up because they have a view on something happening in the world,” Kan said.

The implication for the broader industry is straightforward: if prediction markets can repeatedly attract people who have never touched crypto, they may function like a bridge between mainstream “event-driven” behavior and onchain settlement. For builders, the operational question is how well these first-time users can be retained after the initial activity—whether they continue using wallets, understand transaction flows, and eventually seek out other onchain services beyond betting.

US housing bill CBDC ban delayed amid SAVE America Act linkage

US President Donald Trump canceled the signing ceremony for the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a measure that had already passed the US House and Senate and includes a provision barring the Federal Reserve from issuing or creating a CBDC—or a digital asset “substantially similar”—until the end of 2030.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said the signing would be postponed “until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE America Act.” He has previously indicated he would not sign other bills until that voting-related legislation moves forward.

Coverage noted that the housing bill had been widely expected to be signed without complications, but the president’s stated approach ties the CBDC-adjacent timeline to a separate political objective in Congress. The SAVE America Act would require proof of US citizenship in person to register, a point that critics argue could disenfranchise eligible voters.

For crypto stakeholders, the immediate takeaway is less about the final fate of the housing bill and more about pacing: even when legislation includes concrete restrictions on CBDCs, political sequencing can still reshape when (and whether) the public policy signal fully lands.

Ethereum pushes for institutional readiness as funding pressures persist

Ethereum-related efforts this week centered on institutional readiness. Sharplink—backed by former Ethereum Foundation contributors and funded by Bitmine and Joe Lubin among others—announced the launch of Ethlabs, a new research and development nonprofit designed to help prepare Ethereum for what it described as a “next phase of institutional adoption.”

The group framed the moment in terms of market convergence: stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, funds, and autonomous AI commerce are increasingly moving on-chain, and Ethlabs aims to ensure Ethereum can absorb the demand “at scale.”

The launch arrives against a backdrop of ecosystem concern about development resources. Cointelegraph previously reported warnings from former Ethereum Foundation contributor Trenton Van Epps about a potential core development funding crisis, and the Ethereum Foundation has also faced notable leadership departures, including the exit of co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang reported earlier.

What’s particularly relevant for investors and protocol participants is that Ethlabs signals parallel capacity-building outside the Foundation structure—an approach that may be increasingly common as the ecosystem searches for sustainable long-term funding models. However, readers should watch how these R&D efforts translate into measurable improvements—whether in scaling, privacy, security, or censorship resistance—rather than only in organizational announcements.

Strategy’s dividend strain revives liquidity and purchasing debate

While not tied to a single legislative or institutional headline, CryptoQuant’s analysis highlighted stress points in one of the largest Bitcoin treasury strategies. The analytics firm said Strategy’s dividend coverage fell to about 14 months from seven years, and recommended the company led by Michael Saylor pause Bitcoin purchases while replenishing its cash reserve, which it estimated has fallen 38% year-to-date.

CryptoQuant said Strategy’s dividend obligations have nearly quadrupled to $1.2 billion after the firm issued new STRC preferred stock with an 11.5% yield. In a Wednesday X post, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju urged a systematic framework for when Bitcoin purchases occur and also called for a “disciplined selling framework” for the next bull cycle.

Cointelegraph had earlier reported that Strategy repurchased $1.5 billion of its 2029 senior notes at a discount on May 26, and that its cash coffers recovered later after selling MSTR shares and adding $300 million to its US dollar reserve. Even so, CryptoQuant framed the remaining runway as near a record-low level of funds available to cover dividends.

For market participants, the broader lesson is that even in a Bitcoin-linked thesis, capital allocation discipline and liquidity planning remain the real constraints. Dividend mechanics can change the shape of risk regardless of long-term asset convictions.

Going forward, the most important thing to monitor is how these separate threads interact: whether prediction markets continue to widen crypto access without losing first-timers, whether US policy timelines involving CBDC restrictions accelerate or stall, and whether Ethereum’s new institutional readiness push can address ongoing development funding concerns with concrete, network-impacting outcomes.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has issued a blunt warning that the fast-growing stablecoin market could undermine core pillars of the global monetary system—particularly sovereign control and the ability of banks to fund lending to the real economy. In its Annual Economic Report, published Sunday, the Basel-based institution assessed the stablecoin sector at roughly $316 billion and argued that most tokens pegged to fiat currencies do not have the institutional features needed to function as safe, reliable money at scale.

Rather than dismissing tokenization altogether, BIS said policymakers should push toward “tokenized” versions of central bank and commercial bank money on regulated infrastructures. The report also expands BIS’s critique of public, permissionless blockchains—arguing that the economic incentives and governance gaps in decentralized networks make them a poor fit for systemically important financial infrastructure.

Key takeaways

• BIS warns that stablecoin growth could fragment the monetary system and weaken central banks’ ability to control money and credit.
• The BIS report argues that fiat-pegged stablecoins lack the institutional design needed to operate as reliable money at the scale financial systems require.
• Tokenized central bank money and tokenized commercial bank deposits on regulated platforms are presented as a more robust alternative.
• BIS points to “stablecoin dollarization” as a risk factor for monetary sovereignty and bank intermediation, especially in emerging markets.
• The report renews BIS’s stance that permissionless public blockchains face structural hurdles tied to settlement economics and accountability.

Stablecoins, monetary sovereignty, and the bank funding question

In its assessment of stablecoins, BIS focused on what it sees as structural vulnerabilities in how reserve assets underpin many tokens. The report argues that stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies may not provide the same institutional safeguards expected of money used throughout payments and finance.

More broadly, BIS said that a meaningful shift by holders away from commercial bank deposits and into private digital tokens could reduce banks’ funding base. In BIS’s framing, that contraction could constrain banks’ capacity to extend credit to the real economy—an issue that connects stablecoin adoption not just to payments, but to financial intermediation and credit creation.

Equally important for central banks, BIS said the current regulatory approach may not be sufficient if private digital currencies continue to expand. The report’s policy signal is that stablecoins should not be treated as the foundation of the future monetary system without addressing the risks to monetary stability and sovereign control.

The “stablecoin dollarization” risk

BIS also highlighted a trend it calls “stablecoin dollarization”: the growing use of dollar-denominated stablecoins in countries with weaker domestic currencies. According to BIS, this pattern can impair monetary sovereignty and reduce the effectiveness of local monetary policy.

The BIS report further links stablecoin dollarization to weaker bank intermediation and greater exposure to volatile cross-border capital flows. BIS’s concern is that when dollar-linked tokens become an increasingly common store of value and medium of exchange, domestic policy tools can become less effective—particularly in emerging market economies where financial systems may already face constraints.

For market participants, the implication is that stablecoin growth does not occur in a policy vacuum. Adoption in jurisdictions with currency stress can change the transmission of monetary policy, alter deposit dynamics, and potentially amplify external shocks.

BIS presses for “unified ledger” tokenization

While BIS critiqued stablecoins as they currently operate, it did not reject the underlying idea of tokenization. Instead, the report advocates a “unified ledger” architecture that brings tokenized central bank money, tokenized commercial bank deposits, and tokenized financial assets together on programmable platforms—within regulated legal and institutional frameworks.

BIS’s underlying argument is that tokenization can deliver practical benefits—such as programmable transactions and faster settlement—without giving up the institutional foundations that, in its view, are necessary for financial integrity, public trust, and system-level stability.

This is also where BIS’s recommendations differ from the most common public narrative around stablecoins. Rather than emphasizing private tokens as the endpoint, BIS is effectively calling for tokenized money to remain anchored in the regulated institutions that already underpin payments, liquidity, and compliance in traditional finance.

For investors and builders, the “unified ledger” approach suggests a direction of travel: interoperability and programmability, yes—but paired with clearer governance, defined responsibilities, and institutional accountability.

Why BIS says permissionless public chains struggle with institutional finance

BIS’s report includes one of its strongest critiques yet of permissionless public blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum as a foundation for the monetary system. The BIS position is that decentralized networks relying on distributed validation and lacking a central governance structure struggle to meet expectations for scalability, legal accountability, and settlement finality—qualities BIS argues are required for systemically important financial infrastructure.

A central part of BIS’s technical-economic reasoning is that decentralized consensus mechanisms tend to rely on incentives through transaction fees. In BIS’s description, these fee dynamics rise as network activity increases, which can make congestion, longer confirmation times, and higher costs inherent traits rather than solvable short-term bugs.

BIS also argues that permissionless networks do not provide the governance and accountability frameworks institutional finance requires. Without an identifiable entity responsible for maintaining integrity, resolving disputes, or ensuring compliance with financial integrity standards, BIS contends these networks face major obstacles to supporting large-scale regulated financial activity.

Importantly, BIS does not frame tokenization as a substitute for governance. Its emphasis is that programmable financial infrastructure must be paired with enforceable responsibility structures if it is meant to support money-like functions at systemic scale.

What to watch next

For policymakers and market participants, BIS’s report raises the question of whether stablecoin regulation will evolve toward tokenized forms of central bank and commercial bank money on regulated rails. The key uncertainty now is how quickly regulators and financial institutions will translate BIS’s “unified ledger” vision into practical standards—and how adoption of private stablecoins could respond in the meantime.