Kresko, a DeFi protocol for trading synthetic stocks, commodities and crypto, is shutting down, the platform announced on Thursday.

The protocol, which raised $4.15 million from investors between 2021 and 2023, cited the founder Deepak Nuli’s health issues as the reason for the decision.

“Our founder has been facing significant health challenges, which have recently worsened,” Kresko said in an X post. “After much consideration and exploring various alternatives, we’ve concluded that this is the best course of action.”

No more specific information was revealed.

Before founding Kresko, Nuli established crypto security and research company Multisig.

Users have until Sept. 10 to withdraw their assets from the platform or migrate their funds to a new protocol called Kopio, a forked version of the protocol developed by some Kresko team members.

Forked versions in crypto are copies of existing projects.

Crypto synthetics market

Kresko launched in 2021 after the infamous GameStop short squeeze when retail trading app Robinhood controversially halted trading of the stock.

The protocol allowed users to create and trade synthetic assets: crypto-backed tokens that represented trading positions in traditional assets.

Users could trade synthetic stocks of companies such as electric vehicle maker Tesla or commodities like gold on Kresko.

The protocol uses a minter app that allows users to mint synthetic versions of investment assets based on the crypto collateral committed on the platform.

Users can also trade fractions of those synthetic assets instead of buying whole shares.

Kresko was a minor player in the crypto synthetics market, a sector worth $805 million, according to CoinGecko.

Synthetix Network and Uma Protocol are the largest players in the sector and are worth $493 million and $181 million respectively. Other prominent projects include STP Network, Cryptex Finance, and Indigo Protocol.

Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. To share tips or information about stories, please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.