POAP to cease development after more than five years, co-founder says

POAP is winding down after more than five years, ending one of crypto’s best-known onchain attendance badge projects while leaving previously minted tokens intact on public blockchains. Co-founder Isabel Gonzalez said the company could not build a sustainable business model without weakening the ethos that made POAP meaningful, and said crypto’s funding cycles and distribution dynamics made that especially difficult. The project began at ETHDenver in 2019, when about 100 badges were issued to hackathon participants, and later expanded into a broader platform using the ERC-721 NFT standard before moving from Ethereum to Gnosis Chain to reduce costs. It went on to mint nearly 7.6 million badges through more than 46,000 issuers, with uses spanning conferences, online events, community milestones and brand collaborations involving Coinbase, Amex, WMG and Bayer. POAP entered maintenance mode on March 16, ending active development and new issuer onboarding while keeping existing badges and integrations operating. As of Aug. 4, the main website and related tools were still accessible, but no final shutdown timetable has been published.