Vitalik Buterin-backed Nocturne protocol shuts down operations overnight
Ethereum-native privacy protocol Nocturne Labs is shutting down its operations.
Nocturne, backed by prominent cryptocurrency experts including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, announced it was ceasing operations in a June 5 X post.
“After shutting down the privacy protocol we built earlier last year, we’ve decided to wind down the company.”
The company gave no explanation for the closure. Cointelegraph has approached Nocturne Labs for comment.
Nocturne initially aimed to introduce private accounts and transactions to the Ethereum ecosystem. In October 2023, the firm raised $6 million in a seed funding round led by Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital, with participation from Buterin.
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Nocturne front-end withdrawals remain open until the end of June
Despite winding down company operations, users will still be able to execute withdrawals through the Nocturne front end until the end of June, according to the announcement:
“The front end will remain open for withdrawals until the end of this month. From there we will convert the withdrawal process to self-serve via this GitHub repo with detailed instructions on how to eject funds using our CLI tool.”
Nocturne currently holds over $129,000 in total value locked (TVL), down from over $455,000 on Jan. 22, when the shutdown of Nocturne V1 was announced, according to DefiLlama data.
Nocturne shutting down due to regulatory crackdown on privacy?
The protocol wrote in an X post on Jan. 22:
“With more applications and utility, we believe the need for privacy will emerge again but until then, we are focused on the tech and user-facing problems that are of immediate concern today. We will have more to share on the new product in the coming months.”
Privacy-focused cryptocurrency projects have seen increased scrutiny since August 2022, after the crypto mixing protocol Tornado Cash was blacklisted by the United States government.
Alexey Pertsev, the developer of Tornado Cash, was found guilty of money laundering on May 14.
The sentencing came despite Tornado Cash being a noncustodial crypto mixing protocol — meaning that the funds that go through the protocol are never held or controlled by it.
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