Bear Market Claims Two More Crypto Projects: Linera and Switchboard Shut Down

Two cryptocurrency projects, Linera and Switchboard, have announced their shutdowns in the past week. The closures come on the heels of a bear market that has already seen over 260 crypto projects shut down this year, according to the RootData tracker.

Linera, a layer-1 network backed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), told its community on September 18 that it had ceased operations immediately and indefinitely. The project had raised $12 million across two seed rounds, with a16z leading the first in 2022 and Borderless Capital leading the second in 2023.

The team refunded all contributions after failing to meet their minimum target of $1.5 million USDC on the Sonar platform, which attracted close to $900,000 in commitments. Linera's points balances will be preserved, but there is no guarantee that they will receive any consideration in the future.

Switchboard Technology Labs announced its shutdown a day later, citing the bear market and the rise of AI tools that have reduced the cost of building an oracle. The team stated that there was less need for data intermediaries in crypto due to these developments.