Router Protocol, a cross-chain infrastructure project backed by Coinbase, announced it will completely cease operations by September 30. The project team stated that attempts to commercialize their products, secure a sustainable position in the highly competitive blockchain bridging sector, or find a buyer had been unsuccessful.
Router Protocol announced its decision to shut down after more than four years of development via a statement on X. The team stated that they had spent the last year conducting commercialization, licensing, and acquisition talks, but were unable to create a model that would allow them to continue operations.
The company stated that key issues include the shift of capital from the crypto market towards the AI sector and the decrease in asset transfer fees between blockchains. It also noted a decline in demand for router services as activity becomes more concentrated on fewer networks and standardized infrastructures.
As part of its closing strategy, Router plans to permanently burn 303,333,198 ROUTE tokens held in its treasury. This amount represents approximately 30% of the total supply of about 1 billion tokens. The project will also work with centralized exchanges to end support for ROUTE.
Router announced that no new ROUTE programs will be launched and that it will remain independent of any market or liquidity pools created after the delisting process. However, the team will open-source some components so that developers can use the work done over the past four years.
Router had raised $4.1 million in funding in 2021 from investors such as Coinbase Ventures and Polygon. The project, which launched its own Layer 1 network, Router Chain, in July 2024, decided to shut down this network in September 2025 due to infrastructure costs, security risks, and validator inflation.
The team also revealed that two security incidents occurred in 2025, and in one of them, 80% of the lost value was recovered.
*This is not investment advice.
