a16z Loses One Project Every Month, Zero-VC Hyperliquid Hits $30B Market Cap, Crypto Sector's Moment of VC Disillusionm…

The crypto market is repricing VC backing, with real users and revenue replacing the halo of capital to become a more critical proof of value.

By: Xiaobing

On X, “Zhuifeng Lab” compiled a list of discontinued projects from a16z Crypto’s portfolio this year, following a rhythmic pattern: almost one fails each month, as if someone is executing an exit schedule month by month.

January, Entropy; March, Yupp; April, Foundation; May, Syndicate; June, Orchid Protocol; July, Legend; August, Proof of Play; September, Linera.

Eight months, eight bodies.

According to statistics, out of the 189 projects invested in by a16z Crypto, 42 have ceased operations or been sold off.

Looking at the funding records of those 42 projects, this isn’t just ordinary early-stage natural attrition. Just Yupp, Syndicate, and Entropy burned through $87 million. Yupp onboarded 1.3 million users yet still failed to find a business model; Syndicate bet $27.8 million on the DAO tools track, only to discover the entire market was an order of magnitude smaller than expected; Entropy secured $25 million for decentralized custody, attempted multiple pivots, with zero successes.

The latest casualty in September, Linera, is even more ironic. This high-performance L1 project founded by former Meta engineers raised $12 million led by a16z. As it was about to go live on its mainnet, it launched a community token sale with a $1.5 million target, raising only $848,000. Just 617 people couldn’t scrape together $1.5 million. a16z’s investment halo is already worth less than $1.5 million in trust in the retail market.