The crypto market is always shifting, and October has been a hard month for the crypto community, with a record number of investors losing money. People who want to take risks and have big aspirations have been interested in crypto for a long time. They want to find the next “revolutionary” token or chain that goes to the moon.
That was the way Kadena used to be. It was produced by people who used to work for JPMorgan and came out in 2017. It said it had Bitcoin-level security and Ethereum-level scalability because of its unique braided networks. It was supposed to be the corporate blockchain: safe, fast, and ready for real-world usage. It worked for a time.
From the Blockchain Hype to Wall Street Labs
KDA tokens reached an all-time high of £27.64 in 2021, giving Kadena a market worth of about £4 billion. A £100 million grant package drew many innovators, and early companies like Kadena Cabinet and KDSwap helped things move along.
But the excitement didn’t make everyone use it all the time. By 2023, the total value that was frozen was almost £11 million. Compared to Solana or Ethereum, this isn’t much. A lot of people didn’t come, even though the facility was well-designed. The network was a brilliant idea, but it didn’t work out since it was hard to use, took a long time to get going, and didn’t have any big partners. Slotsfan is encouraging players to keep an eye on the volume spikes if they are holding significant balances in any casino accounts. They are also reminding everyone that in the realm of cryptocurrency, just like in gaming, new and flashy ideas don’t always lead to long-term profits.
The Crash That Stopped a Big One
Kadena stated it was going out of business on October 22, 2025, since the value of its tokens dropped by 77% in just one month. The corporation that built the blockchain is no longer in business, but it is still running because it is decentralised. In less than 24 hours, the total sum that was frozen dropped from £11 million to just £128,000. KDSwap and Mercatus lost all of their liquidity, and the Kadena Cabinet governance centre lost 70% of its TVL in just one night.
KDA’s price dropped to £0.12, which is 99% less than its highest point. Right away, major exchanges did something. OKX started to delist on October 29, and Bybit stopped all contracts and financing services. It was quite hard for investors to wake up. People on social media were angry and upset. A long-time holder commented, “My faith in crypto has gone down along with the value of all my investments.”
The Road to Nowhere and Cash Burn
According to Kadena’s official statement, the market and a lack of long-term financing were to blame. There will still be more than 83.7 million KDA locked up by 2029, but if developers don’t keep it up, it could become a ghost chain — alive but not useful.
It wasn’t the technology that was the problem with the company; it was the traction. Kadena made great tools, but they couldn’t get other people to utilise them or keep engineers motivated. It couldn’t find a permanent home among more than 200 other layer-1 blockchains and a lot of layer-2 rollups. There were promises of money and technology, but there was never any real involvement.
A Cautionary Tale in the Layer-1 Jungle
The death of Kadena reveals that in the crypto world, innovation isn’t enough. Ethereum and Solana did well because they built ecosystems instead of just technology. Most layer-1 chains are now competing for a smaller number of clients. On average, less than 2,000 people use them every day. The story of Kadena reminds us of a painful truth: adoption is very vital.
