ZeroLend, a decentralized cryptocurrency lending platform, announced on February 16 that it has decided to shut down. Operations will be terminated three years after the start of operations.
“Despite the team’s continued efforts, it has become clear that the protocol is no longer sustainable in its current form,” said the founder known as Deadshot Riker. There are multiple reasonshe explained.
Over time, several cryptocurrency networks that ZeroLend supported in its early stages (such as Mezo and AbstractChain) have become dormant or have significantly reduced liquidity. In some cases, the oracle provider they discontinued support. According to the founders, this makes it increasingly difficult to operate the market reliably and generate sustainable income.
He further added that as lending protocols have grown, they have attracted more attention from malicious actors such as hackers and fraudsters.
“The lending protocol’s inherently thin margins, combined with its high risk profile, have resulted in extended periods in which the protocol has operated in the red,” he revealed.
Total Value Lock (TVL) measures the amount of capital of crypto assets within a protocol, giving a clear picture of deterioration. The metric hit an all-time high of over $340 million (USD) more than a year ago in November 2024. Approximately $6 million, down 98%According to data from DefiLlama.
User needs to withdraw cryptocurrency
According to the ZeroLend founder: Our immediate priority is to ensure that users can withdraw their assets. You are requested to do so as soon as possible.
Nevertheless, the company’s website currently does not display any warnings in this regard, nor does it prevent you from making deposits in some markets. However, most markets have already adjusted to 0% loan-to-value (LTV), which means no new loans are allowed.
The announcement indicates that some funds are currently being blocked for assets on the network that have experienced significant liquidity deterioration, including Manta, Zircuit, and XLayer. “We are actively working on solutions to return these funds to our users,” Riker said.
“To facilitate this, we will perform time-locked updates that will allow for the redeployment of affected assets. This will include updates to the protocol’s smart contracts and is solely aimed at maximizing recovery for our users,” he added.
Similarly, it reminded Base’s LBTC (tokenized version of Bitcoin) users of an incident in February last year and that they are working to trace and recover their funds. According to their message, suppliers can receive a partial refund by supporting the LINEA airdrop allocation that the team received. As such, he encouraged those affected, as well as anyone with questions about the closure, to contact them.
The price of the platform’s native token “ZERO” has fallen by 36%. In the news of the past 24 hours. The asset has been on a downward trend since its launch in May 2024, and it only got worse today, hitting an all-time low of $0.064183.
According to the platform’s website, more than $747,000 in crypto assets have been lent through the platform since its inception. This was promoted as a financing market for “exotic assets”, i.e. assets that are less well known.
ZeroLend’s shutdown comes amid tensions in the cryptocurrency market. The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is trading around $68,000, which is 46% from its all-time high set in October 2025. As reported by CriptoNoticias, it is estimated that this decline is the beginning of a crypto winter that could deepen further.
(Tag translation) Altcoin
