Linear Finance, a non-custodial cross-chain protocol offering decentralized financial services, has shared a notice of closure. The decision, which the platform attributed to various financial challenges, was significantly accelerated by Binance’s delisting of its native token, LINA, from its platform. According to its announcement post on X , Linear Finance stated that the platform has been plagued with financial challenges for most of its existence, the only exception being a brief period of profitability during its initial launch in 2020. Binance’s decision to delist the Lina token resulted in a 65% reduction in its market capitalization, causing a significant loss and dealing a final blow to Linear Finance’s operational viability. The impact of Binance’s delisting on Linear Finance and Vite Labs Linear Finance isn’t the only project facing these difficult times. Vite Labs, a zero-gas layer-one (L1) blockchain, also announced on X that all its remaining development funds were wiped out due to Binance delisting its token amid the recent blowback from the DWF Labs’ market-making scandal. Vite Labs also announced that it will only maintain the network for as long as it can until it can no longer support it. Effectively, all roadmap plans tied to the platform are canceled. A recurring theme in these shutdowns is Binance’s role in determining the fate of smaller crypto projects through delistings. A pattern of delistings Binance had announced on February 17, 2025, that it would delist VITE among other tokens such as AirDAO (AMB), CLV (CLV), and StormX (STMX) on February 24, 2025. About a month later, on March 21, 2025, Binance announced that it will delist LINEAR Finance and others: Aergo (AERGO), Airswap (AST), BurgerCities (BURGER), and COMBO (COMBO) from its platform by March 28, 2025. This led holders of the various tokens to liquidate their assets before the set delisting date. According to Binance, it reviews digital assets periodically to ensure that they continue to meet a high standard and industry requirements. For coins that are found wanting in terms of these standards and requirements, Binance says it will review and potentially delist them from its platform. Some of the metrics Binance reportedly looks at when considering delisting a digital asset are trading volume and liquidity, community sentiments, commitment of the team to the project, evidence of unethical/fraudulent conduct or negligence, and new regulatory requirements, among others. Linear Finance’s reaction and Vite Labs’ accelerated demise In its initial reaction to the announcement on March 21, Linear Finance tried to reassure its community, stating that it had been in discussions with Binance and that the delisting decision came from the highest levels. The platform also mentioned that a significant portion of its trading volume was generated on a variety of platforms such as Bitget, Mexc, Kucoin, Gate.io, HTX, and many other exchanges, informing users to also access their perpetual contracts on Kraken, Phemex, and more. Linear Finance didn’t give any hint of its impending shutdown, having reiterated its commitment to continue according to its roadmap and also focus on its new AI-focused strategy, which, according to them, will drive the next phase. However, in its latest announcement, Linear Finance revealed that all key stakeholders had exited their positions. The platform also added that its operations teams will be in touch with users with active positions across its dApps on how they can make their exits with clear timelines. Vite Labs, already aware of its situation a month prior, announced in February that due to the delisting event, it was going to close down its gateway in April. The platform then made another announcement on March 3, 2025, calling all users to withdraw their assets as the gateway was going to be closed on March 10, 2025, a month earlier than the initially planned shutdown. Binance’s new delisting mechanism raises further questions Binance’s latest moves come after it announced that it will be trying out a new delisting mechanism where users will be invited to participate in what it called “Vote to Delist” and “Vote to List” campaigns. It shared a list of criteria to qualify for the voting, adding that only verified users will be allowed to vote on whether certain tokens that find themselves on the Binance monitoring zone should be delisted. Today, @binance delisted $AERGO , $AST , $BURGER , $COMBO , and $LINA — then moments later posted: “Binance values community input and recognizes that it is a key driving force in the course of our development. We recently introduced two community co-governance listing mechanisms,… — Linear Finance (@LinearFinance) March 22, 2025 In reaction to that announcement, Linear Finance posted an excerpt of Binance’s community voting announcement and added that it wasn’t accorded any of those courtesies by Binance, saying, “there was no vote, no warning, and zero transparency. We’re disgusted by the hypocrisy. The community deserves better.” Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon - A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn More
