Router Protocol, a cross-chain infrastructure firm backed by Coinbase Ventures, will shut down all of its operations by September 30. In a Friday post on X, the team announced it will burn the 303,333,198 ROUTE tokens held in its treasury.

Burning the treasury tokens permanently removes them from circulation — a step some projects use to support token value, though in this case it primarily serves to wind down the protocol's finances as it ceases operations. The announcement leaves ROUTE token holders in a difficult position, as the token is already worth less than 1% of its all-time high price. The decision comes amid a broader shift in which crypto infrastructure firms have begun abandoning their fee-based models.

Router Protocol ends four-year run

The shutdown marks the end of a venture that spent nearly four years working to build a monetized bridge between blockchain networks. Cross-chain bridging emerged as a major sector during the 2020–2021 decentralized finance boom, when users frequently moved assets between Ethereum, Polygon, and other networks that lacked native interoperability. Router reported that the past year was spent pursuing business models, licensing deals, and even an outright acquisition of the project. However, none of these efforts produced an outcome capable of sustaining a protocol team.

The tokens set to be burned represent roughly 30% of ROUTE's supply of nearly one billion tokens. At the same time, Router intends to work with centralized exchanges to delist ROUTE trading pairs. Each exchange will follow its own schedule for delisting and token withdrawals. Holders keeping tokens on a centralized exchange have been advised to consult that exchange's listing page and withdraw their tokens before the deadline. After delisting, holders may lose easy off-ramps for the token, which is why the team has flagged the withdrawal schedules as a practical deadline to watch.

Once the delistings are complete, no new ROUTE projects will be initiated, and the protocol will remain outside of any markets or liquidity pools created after that point. Nevertheless, the team plans to open-source some of the software it developed so other developers can make use of it.

Cheaper bridging erodes demand

The protocol cited several pressures weighing on the firm simultaneously. First, venture capital funding has shifted away from cryptocurrency toward artificial intelligence. It also noted that the cost of bridging assets between chains has fallen across the industry, while asset usage has become more concentrated on fewer blockchains with less customized infrastructure — reducing demand for the services the protocol provided.

"Bridging economics are thin, forcing fee compression against costs that never rest," the founders said.

Router reportedly maintained a small team of fewer than 10 people, with a long development period funded through fundraising rather than revenue. In 2021, it raised $4.1 million from investors including Coinbase Ventures, Polygon, Woodstock Fund, and QCP Capital, with Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal participating as an individual investor. The company operated from Singapore, although most of its developers were based in India. Its founders were CEO Ramani Ramachandran and co-founders Shubham Singh, Chandan Choudhury, and Priyeshu Garg.

Crypto infrastructure shakeout deepens

Router's own Layer 1, known as Router Chain, also never reached the finish line. Launched in July 2024, it ran on a proof-of-stake protocol with ROUTE serving as the gas, governance, and security token. The chain was unwound in September 2025 due to infrastructure costs, validator inflation, security vulnerabilities, and a decision to focus on the project's Open Graph Architecture for building bridges and trading networks.

Security problems shadowed the project throughout the year. In its press release, Router highlighted a February 2025 exploitation, from which it recovered 80% of the funds through negotiations, and a chain-level attack in July, from which no funds were recovered. The developers also noted that all protocol fees were used to purchase ROUTE.

Router is not shutting down alone. Ethereum infrastructure firm Syndicate Labs decided to wind down its operations in May, citing a shrinking rollup market and demand shifting toward the creation of custom chains. Bitcoin Layer 2 developer Botanix closed down in June after concluding that transaction fees could not cover its expenses.