Kadena halts operations, network to be run by community

The company behind the Kadena blockchain announced on Tuesday that it is immediately halting all business operations and will cease active maintenance of the network, citing adverse market conditions. The announcement, posted on X, triggered a sharp market reaction as the native KDA token fell roughly half its value within hours and trading volume spiked.

"We are no longer able to continue business operations," the company said in its post. It said a small internal team will remain only to manage the winddown and to deliver a software binary for node operators to ensure the network continues to run without corporate involvement. The organization emphasized that the Kadena blockchain itself is decentralized and will remain online, run by independent miners and node operators.

Kadena was developed as a proof-of-work smart-contract platform marketed to businesses for high throughput and scalability. Its mainnet launched in January 2020, and the project was led by founders Stuart Popejoy and Will Martino. Over its history the platform sought to combine on-chain decentralization with business-focused tooling and at one point launched grant programs to attract developers.