Solana-based Dapp Clockwork set to shut down a month after NFT protocol Cardinal goes under

Solana-based DeFi application Clockwork will be winding down its nodes on the mainnet by October 31.
Clockwork developers cited the same reason as NFT protocol Cardinal for shutting down - lack of commercial upside.
The DeFi market’s suffering may continue as the total value locked declined by $4 billion this month.

Aaryamann Shrivastava FXStreet

The Decentralised Finance (DeFi) market has been observing waning interest for the past couple of months. The broader market’s depreciating conditions are leaving a bearish impact on the protocols as well, leading to the shuttering of some major Decentralized applications (Dapp). Solana this week marked the shutdown of its second Dapp in just two months.

Solana DeFi protocol loses to bears

Solana-based DeFi application, Clockwork, is the second protocol to fall victim to the broader market bearish cues on the network. The founder of the protocol, Nick Garfield, announced on the social media platform X that the team behind Clockwork will be stepping away from active development of the Dapp.

Nick went on to add that the developers may continue to use the software as written, but their nodes on development network and mainnet will be shut down by October 31. The users were notified that the on-chain programs would be frozen, and the code would remain open-source and free to fork on GitHub.

However, the founder encouraged the development of the protocol, stating that anyone who wished to fork the code and ship has the team’s full endorsement. The reason behind the winding down of the protocol was the lack of commercial upside in the consistent development of the protocol.

Clockwork was initially conceived out of a need for an on-chain automation primitive.

To that end, the team and I feel successful in completing our original mission and proud of the adoption it has seen.

4/
— Nick (@time_composer) August 27, 2023

Back towards the end of June, another Solana Dapp, an NFT protocol Cardinal, was shut down for the same reason. The challenging macroeconomic conditions have been weighing heavily on the developers, resulting in losses. To make things worse, investors have been pulling their money out of the DeFi market to offset or prevent any significant losses arising out of the concerning conditions of the market.

This is visible in the fact that the total value locked (TVL) on the DeFi market has been consistently declining for about four months now. The month of August alone noted a decline of $4 billion in the TVL, bringing it down to $ 62.91 billion.

DeFi market TVL

With the TVL at its lowest in more than seven months, the DeFi market does not seem very lucrative when it comes to investment. This might result in further outflows, leaving protocols vulnerable to an outcome similar to Clockwork and Cardinal.

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Author

Aaryamann Shrivastava

FXStreet

Aaryamann Shrivastava is a Cryptocurrency journalist and market analyst with over 1,000 articles under his name. Graduated with an Honours in Journalism, he has been part of the crypto industry for more than a year now.