Dango’s perp DEX taps out nearly 4 months after launch
Dango is shutting down its layer-1 blockchain and perpetual DEX after concluding it has no viable path to long-term commercial success. Trading on the perp DEX will stop Wednesday, and the network will shut down on Aug. 13. Founder Larry Liu cited cash shortages, legal issues that slowed progress, team departures, and weak market conditions. The project launched its mainnet in January after a $3.6 million seed round led by Hack VC and Lemniscap, then launched its perp DEX in April. It suffered a roughly $410,000 exploit shortly after launch, though the attacker later returned the funds for a bug bounty. Dango’s TVL fell from about $4.5 million in early May to around $1.6 million before the shutdown announcement, while its open interest stayed far below leading perp DEXs like Hyperliquid and Aster. The closure comes amid a broader wave of crypto shutdowns, including BitMEX, Odos Protocol, and Satori Finance.
