POAP Shutters After Five Years, Leaving 7.6 Million Badges Behind

POAP, Proof of Attendance Protocol, has officially shut down its operations after five years in business. The blockchain badge platform was founded by Isabel Gonzalez and allowed users to mint onchain mementos to prove attendance at crypto events, conferences, and hackathons.

Nearly 7.6 million badges were created since POAP launched, with over 46,210 issuers using the platform, including Coinbase and American Express.

Gonzalez cited the industry's funding cycles as a major reason for the shutdown, stating that it was hard to keep the company running without losing what made the badges meaningful to collectors.

POAP's closure is part of a wider pattern in the crypto space, with other platforms like Leap Wallet and Zapper shutting down due to weak market conditions and difficulty raising capital.