Layer-2 solutions and protocol tooling suffer the most severe failures. Altcoin prices down 70-90%, far exceeding Bitcoin's retreat into venture-stage risk repricing.
Low entry costs attracted excess competitors into identical categories. Most had no path to profitability. Market downturn accelerated the culling. Dot-com left Amazon and Google behind.
Established protocols like Ether.fi keep innovating. Just added tokenized stocks, metals, and Aave-powered portfolio loans. Viable projects thrive amid the washout.
100+ failures is not crypto's end—it's maturation. Overcrowded sectors purge weak players. A smaller, more capable protocol set will emerge when consolidation completes.
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