Dead Narratives
The hype cycles that burned bright and flamed out. ICOs, NFTs, Play-to-Earn, and the stories crypto told itself.
Latest from Dead Narratives
SkyAI: The Solana Treasury Company That Sold 70% of Its SOL in a Month to Buy Back Its Own Shares
SkyAI raised $400M in 2025 to buy and hold Solana. By October 2026 it had sold about 70% of its coins and offered $201M to buy back its own shares.
Coldcard: Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins, and Your Keys Were Never Really Yours Either
For a decade the answer to every exchange collapse was to hold your own keys. Then a Coldcard firmware bug made thousands of offline wallets guessable.
Crypto IPOs: Going Public Was the Graduation, Then Gemini Fell 89% and the Class Flunked
Listing on Wall Street was meant to be crypto's graduation. Then Gemini fell 89%, BitGo 77% and Bullish 71% from their debuts.
XRP: The Bank Coin for Eight Years, Until Ripple's Own Ally Picked Solana
XRP was sold for years as the coin banks would settle on. In July 2026 SBI, Ripple's closest partner in Asia, built Japan's on-chain market on Solana.
MiCA: The EU Built It to Herd Users Onto Regulated Exchanges. 70% Walked Off-Grid
When Binance left the EU under the MiCA rules, about 70% of departing users skipped licensed exchanges and held their own coins, out of regulators' reach.
Bitcoin Treasury Companies: $80B Lost, and Even Strategy Sold 6,948 Bitcoin
Listed firms raised cash to buy bitcoin while their shares traded above it. In 2026 the premium vanished, $80B went, and even Strategy sold.
DL News: DefiLlama's Crypto Newsroom Closes After a Split and an AI Traffic Slump
DL News was meant to prove crypto could pay for serious journalism. It closed in May 2026, blaming a split with DefiLlama, lost traffic and AI.
EigenLayer: The $22B Restaking Boom That the Kelp DAO Hack Finished Off
EigenLayer drew $22B on a promise of stacked yields from one deposit. A $292M hack on Kelp DAO showed what the stack was standing on.
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'The Supercycle': The Theory That Justified Everything
In 2021 big investors said bitcoin's boom-and-bust cycle was over. Then it fell 78%. In 2025 it peaked again, on schedule, and fell 54%.
DeFi Summer: The 10,000% APY Era Nobody Talks About
In 2020 crypto apps paid 1,000% a year in their own new coins. Most of those coins went to zero. The apps that charged real fees survived.
ICO Mania: When Every White Paper Raised $50 Million
In 2017 a white paper could raise millions in minutes. Most projects died, the SEC moved in, and in 2026 the token sale is back with US rules.