Yield Protocol and Utopia Labs Announce Wind-Down
Zach Anderson Oct 04, 2023 12:15
Yield Protocol and Utopia Labs have recently disclosed the cessation of their current operations due to various factors. While Yield Protocol cites inadequate demand for fixed-rate borrowing and regulatory hurdles, Utopia Labs is pivoting away from its existing product, though it remains upbeat about the crypto sector.
Yield Protocol Cessation
The team behind Yield Protocol has announced the discontinuation of their service post a collective dialogue with relevant stakeholders. The March 2024 fixed rate series will not see a launch, as declared on their official channel dated 17 hours ago. Presently, the platform has limited borrowing and lending to the December 2023 series, with no more accruements for liquidity providers engaging in the March-September (MS) strategies. The final series is slated for maturity on December 29, 2023, marking the end of all borrowing and lending activities on Yield Protocol.
The protocol team commits to ensuring full support until the culmination of the December series. Post this period, support for withdrawals will be extended for a specified duration. Continuous updates will be shared on their official Twitter handle @yield, alongside a promise of sustained engagement on their Discord channel for queries and support.
Despite a promising outlook for the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector and the fixed-rate markets within, Yield Protocol's team felt the necessity of this step owing to the insubstantial demand for fixed-rate borrowing on their platform. The extant regulatory framework in the United States, coupled with escalating regulatory requisites in Europe and the UK, further impedes their ability to maintain the protocol.
The Yield Protocol team expressed gratitude towards their community support over the years, taking pride in the enduring contributions made to other fixed rate protocols and the broader Ethereum ecosystem.
Utopia Labs Shutdown
On a similar note, Utopia Labs has announced the wind-down of its product effective November 6, 2023, as conveyed by CEO Kaito Cunningham on October 2, 2023. Effective immediately, the provision for gasless transactions has been revoked.
Although the team pledges to address support inquiries via Intercom to the best of their ability, they have discontinued bug rectifications by their engineering team. The product will remain accessible for utilization till month-end, post which all services will be terminated on the aforementioned date. Provisions have been made for users to export their payment and bookkeeping data.
This development doesn't signify a complete shutdown of Utopia Labs; rather, it indicates a pivot away from the existing product and the current directional focus. Despite the setback, CEO Kaito remains sanguine about the cryptocurrency domain, anticipating sharing Utopia’s new direction in the upcoming months.
According Crunchbase, Utopia Labs secured $23 million in a Series A funding round, with investments from Circle Ventures among seven other investors. Utopia Labs secured $23 million in a Series A funding round, with investments from Circle Ventures among seven other investors.
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