TapTools, a Cardano-focused real-time analytics platform, has begun winding down after its fifth top-level executive departure, compounding leadership instability and making continued operations unsustainable.
TapTools said in a post to X on Tuesday that it would begin winding down over the next two weeks, and noted the departure of its two co-founders, chief operating officer and chief technology officer earlier this year.
“We worked hard to adapt,” TapTools said, adding that its backend developer had become its CTO as the platform shifted its focus toward shipping products more sustainably; however, they have since departed, and “the technical knowledge required to responsibly operate and maintain TapTools cannot be replaced overnight.”
Source: TapTools
TapTools launched in 2022 and became one of the most widely used tools for Cardano users to track token prices, decentralized finance activity and discover new projects.
The wind-down follows a similar move by Cardano-based nonfungible token marketplace, JPG.Store, which permanently shut down on May 23.
TapTools’ closure comes three days after the Cardano Foundation said its annual conference was cancelled this year after its governance community shot down a revised proposal seeking to fund the event with treasury tokens.
TapTools said the economics of running the platform were another key factor in its decision to wind down.
“Infrastructure costs are real. Development costs are real. Support costs are real. Operating a platform that serves the ecosystem at scale is expensive.”
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TapTools said it remains open to acquisition or external funding to sustain operations.
Cardano creator expects more protocol wind-downs
Cardano creator Charles Hoskinson took some of the blame for TapTools’ wind-down, saying in a video shared to X that he expected a lot of protocols to collapse in the current bear market and that he came up with a plan to “bail out” struggling projects.
“I came up with the plan of an index. It did not get executed,” Hoskinson said.
Hoskinson added that Cardano’s governance community could have helped some of these projects, but opted not to.
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