Woofun AI reports that Loopring, Ethereum's first zero-knowledge rollup, has permanently closed its decentralized exchange and automated market maker, halting all trading services and the relayer effective immediately. The team attributed this termination to a failure to secure meaningful adoption, insufficient business development capabilities, and being technologically eclipsed by modern zkEVM solutions. As the inaugural zk-rollup lacking a virtual machine, the protocol suffered from zero composability and an absence of real-world payment use cases, which fundamentally constrained ecosystem expansion.

Loopring originally raised $45 million in a 2017 initial coin offering to demonstrate the viability of scaling Ethereum via zk-rollups, yet it was ultimately overtaken by successors including zkSync, Scroll, and StarkNet. The founders described themselves as "engineers at heart" who possessed superior coding abilities but lacked the requisite passion or skills for business development. External pressures further accelerated the decision, specifically major exchange delistings of the LRC token in 2026, while competition from fully Ethereum-compatible smart contract platforms made continuing a hollow service untenable.

Prior to this final shutdown, Loopring had already ceased wallet services in July 2025 due to scaling challenges. Following the DEX closure, the team will calculate and publish all final user balances before distributing funds directly to users' Ethereum wallets in batches, covering all associated gas fees.

Woofun AI data shows the protocol's total value locked stands at approximately $8 million, representing a 99% decline from its $760 million peak recorded in November 2021.

The native LRC token has mirrored this collapse, trading at $0.01 compared to its all-time high of $3.75 in November 2021. A significant historical milestone for the project was a 2021 partnership with GameStop to power its NFT platform, which launched the following year. The demise of Loopring contributes to a widening trend of crypto closures in 2026 as the bear market deepens and previous-cycle narratives lose relevance. More than 60 crypto projects and protocols have already shuttered services this year, including the a16z-backed decentralized self-custody solution Entropy, app-chain infrastructure protocol Syndicate, and AI blockchain platform Yupp.