DappRadar shuts down: stress test for blockchain’s resilience?

DappRadar, one of the first and most popular analytics platforms for dApps, was founded in 2018. For years, it served as a trusted source of blockchain data and research for the community. The platform’s closure marks the end of an era, with the term “according to DappRadar” will no longer appear in reports and discussions.

Why DappRadar is closing

Announcing the decision, DappRadar founders Skirmantas Januškas and Dragos Dunica said that running the platform in the current environment had become financially unsustainable. “After exploring every option, we had to make the difficult decision to shut down,” the release said.

DappRadar will begin winding down operations and will stop tracking blockchains and applications in the coming days. The announcement comes amid a broader crypto market decline, with Bitcoin trading at around $91,400 – 27% down from its all-time high – and the total crypto market cap at around $3.17 trillion. 

Earlier, in October, the Kadena Network, launched in 2019, also shut down, citing unfavorable market conditions. Kadena said it could no longer sustain active development or corporate operations due to the environment.

In separate posts, the founders thanked everyone who had been part of DappRadar and shared that it was a difficult goodbye.

Members of the crypto community reacted to the news, expressing sadness and support for the team. A former DappRadar team member and current Chief Financial Officer at xMoney wrote: “In a pure and genuine web3 world, projects like DappRadar would thrive.” Others, including analyst @MastrXYZ and zkPass contributor @Param_eth, noted that bad actors like fake KOLs and rug-pull scammers continue to be rewarded while quality projects shut down.

Seven years of DappRadar: a look back   

DappRadar began in 2018 as a simple tracker for decentralized applications but quickly became one of Web3’s core discovery tools – often described as a “dapp store for blockchain apps.” It provided analytics on users, transactions, on-chain activity, NFT rankings, portfolio tools, token tracking, and coverage of more than 40–90 blockchains as the ecosystem expanded.

Over the years, the platform grew alongside the industry:

• 2018 – founding:  DappRadar goes live, offering basic analytics and listings for decentralized apps. It soon became a key “dapp store” for discovering early hits like CryptoKitties. 

• September 2019 – seed funding: The company raised $2.33 million in a Seed round led by Naspers Ventures, with support from Blockchain.com Ventures and Angel Invest Berlin. 

• May 2021 – Series A funding: As DeFi and NFTs fueled a market boom, DappRadar raised $5 million in a Series A round led by Prosus Ventures, Blockchain.com Ventures, and NordicNinja VC. The funding helped the platform expand into new features, including NFT portfolio tracking.

• December 2021 – DAO and RADAR token launch: During the market boom, DappRadar launched its RADAR token and a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). The token could be used for Pro services, staking, and voting, giving the community a say in the platform’s decisions.

• 2022 – crypto winter: The prolonged downturn sharply reduced revenues for analytics services. At the same time, infrastructure costs for indexing dozens of chains continued to rise. Maintaining large-scale data operations became financially unsustainable, even as the platform remained widely used.

• 2023 – recovery and decentralization focus: Following the 2022 downturn, DappRadar concentrated on platform improvements and further decentralization through the DAO and the RADAR token.

• 2024 – product & engagement: The Quests feature, rolled out in early 2024 and active into Q3/Q4, proved highly successful: more than 200,000 users completed 142 unique quests. The DAO reported a net profit of $394,000 for 2024. 

• November 2025 – closure: DappRadar announced it would wind down operations after seven years, marking the end of a platform that once served as the primary gateway into the dapp ecosystem.

What’s next for the DAO and the RADAR token? 

The RADAR price dropped about 33% following the shutdown announcement. The token is now 98% below its all-time high of $217, reached on October 27, 2025, and currently trades at around $0.00062, according to TradingView. 

The future of the DAO and the token remains uncertain. The team has said that updates about the DappRadar DAO will be shared through the usual DAO and community channels. The DappRadar DAO also confirmed that the RADAR unstaking interface is accessible outside the main platform, allowing users to unstake without the previous cooldown period.