Keith Grossman Warns Crypto Must Prove Its Value as 100+ Projects Fold in 2026

Crypto is now experiencing a dot-com-style shakeout, with greater than 100 tasks reportedly shutting down, submitting for chapter, or disappearing in 2026, MoonPay President Keith Grossman warned on August 10.

According to him, the droop is forcing crypto firms to ask themselves a elementary query: Are they growing merchandise that folks really need?

Drawing Lessons From Past Busts

In a submit on X that quoted a CoinDesk report, Grossman known as himself “a geriatric” by crypto requirements and noted he has seen a number of cycles after becoming a member of WIRED in 2002, shortly after the dot-com crash, and taking his first management position there in the course of the 2008 monetary disaster.

“Companies fail, individuals lose jobs, careers change & confidence will get shaken,” Grossman wrote, stating that harsh environments could immediate people to rethink their causes for constructing in the area in the primary place.

Over 100 crypto initiatives have ceased operations or declared chapter this 12 months, with the shutdowns starting from exchanges, wallets, DeFi tasks, NFT marketplaces, and blockchain networks.

Grossman in contrast the state of affairs with the dot-com collapse. He argued that the web’s failure to assist 1000’s of companies didn’t imply the expertise itself had failed. Instead, it confirmed that merely being an web firm was not sufficient to create a viable enterprise, and he sees an identical check rising for crypto.

“The query is now not whether or not you possibly can launch a token, create one other chain, elevate a big spherical or generate consideration,” he wrote. “It is easier: Are you creating one thing individuals really need?”

The crypto veteran additionally related digital property with synthetic intelligence, describing AI as “scalable intelligence” and crypto as “scalable reality,” based mostly on a framework from John D’Agostino, contending that blockchains can scale back the price of establishing possession, authenticity and settlement.

That argument led him to tokenization, though he cautioned that placing an asset on a blockchain doesn’t robotically create worth. According to him, the expertise should make one thing meaningfully higher for customers.

Closures Put Business Models Under Pressure

Several shutdowns present that utilization alone has not all the time translated into sustainable income. Tally, a governance platform utilized by greater than 500 protocols, introduced its closure regardless of having processed greater than $1 billion in funds, with Everclear additionally shutting down after reaching $500 million in month-to-month transaction quantity.

The identical strain has reached exchanges. As CryptoPotato reported final month, BitMart and BitMEX have began winding down their buying and selling operations, with BitMart’s BMX token falling greater than 60% following the announcement. Movement Labs additionally filed for Chapter 11 on July 23, pushing its MOVE token greater than 99% under its earlier all-time high.

For Grossman, these failures don’t show that crypto itself has failed; as a substitute, they’re testing whether or not particular person tasks have a product, clients, and a enterprise mannequin that may survive when simple capital disappears.

“Putting one thing on a blockchain doesn’t make it priceless,” he wrote. “The expertise has to earn its place. And so will we.”

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