Kadena Halts Operations Amid Market Struggles, KDA Plunges 60%

When a cryptocurrency’s core team announces the end of its operations and halts network maintenance, the impact on its native token is often immediate and severe. This scenario played out for Kadena’s KDA token after the Kadena Organization announced yesterday that it would no longer run the project—a move that sent the token’s value tumbling.

Kadena Ceases Business Activities

On Tuesday, the Kadena team disclosed through a post on X that it would cease business operations and end active support for the Kadena blockchain. The organization said the decision came as a result of market conditions, which made it unsustainable to continue promoting or supporting its decentralized network.

The market reacted quickly to the announcement. Over the past day, KDA has lost almost 60% of its value and more than 85% over the past month. The token’s market capitalization, which once stood near $4 billion at its 2021 peak, has now dropped to around $29 million. According to CoinMarketCap, KDA is currently trading around 99% below its all-time high of $28.25 recorded in November 2021.

Despite the shutdown, Kadena stated that a small internal team would remain to oversee the transition process and manage the winding-down of operations. The group’s focus will be on ensuring an orderly exit while keeping the blockchain stable as the organization steps away.

Blockchain to Continue Without the Organization

The organization clarified that the Kadena blockchain itself is decentralized and continues to function through independent miners. Smart contract activities and related protocols will remain under the control of their respective maintainers.  To ensure uninterrupted service, Kadena plans to “provide a new binary that ensures uninterrupted operation without our involvement, and will be encouraging all node operators to upgrade as soon as possible.”

Kadena confirmed that over 566 million KDA tokens are still reserved for mining rewards, which will continue to be distributed until 2139, while around 83.7 million tokens are scheduled to be unlocked by November 2029. The organization added that it intends to “engage with the Kadena community to discuss how we can aid the transition to community governance and maintenance. We will post updates on this as they become available.”

Founded in 2016 by Stuart Popejoy and Will Martino, Kadena was built on their extensive experience in blockchain and financial technology. Popejoy formerly led JPMorgan’s Blockchain Center of Excellence, while Martino, who served as Kadena’s president, was previously a technology lead for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s cryptocurrency steering committee.