Eduard Jubany Tur, co-founder of ZKX, said that the volume of threats to the protocol has increased dramatically in recent months, along with constant hacking and fraud attempts. The decision to close is also due to a decrease in user interest and trading volumes, which significantly affected ZKX's revenues. Despite the efforts of market makers, the platform's expenses exceeded its revenues, and the team was unable to find an economically viable way to develop the protocol.
"User engagement was minimal. Only a few people received rewards in STRK and ZKX. Consequently, trading volumes dropped significantly, and daily income barely covered our cloud server costs. The market underestimated the work we have done and the infrastructure," Tour laments.
All trading pairs on ZKX have already been excluded from the listing, positions have been closed, and user funds have been returned to their trading accounts. Customers can transfer funds from trading accounts to their self-storage accounts in the Starknet Ethereum sidechain. Withdrawals can be made via the Starkway Bridge. The protocol will be rolled up until the end of August, and the distribution of funds will continue after September 1.
The ZKX platform was founded in 2021. Previously, the protocol received support from the blockchain company StarkWare, Amber Group, Huobi cryptocurrency exchanges and Crypto.com , as well as from Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal and DragonFly Capital General Partner Ashwin Ramachandran.
Last year, Algofi, the largest decentralized finance project based on the Algorand blockchain, stopped operations. In August 2023, the smart contract automation project for the Solana network, Clockwork, was closed due to low commercial interest.