Utopia Labs to sunset services next month, signaling business model shift

Utopia’s CEO, Kaito Cunningham, attempted to assuage fears his business would end next month calling it a move away from its existing direction

article-image

San Francisco, home of Utopia Labs; Source: Shutterstock, modified by Blockworks

share

San Francisco-based peer-to-peer startup Utopia Labs said Monday it would wind down all services beginning next month in a move that’s being canvased as a pivot away from its current business model.

“For the supporters of Utopia — we’re not shutting down the company, rather, moving away from our existing product and our existing direction,” Kaito Cunningham, Utopia’s CEO said in a statement.

All services will be suspended on Nov. 6, though provisions have been put in place for users to export financial data, a company banner on its website reads.

Having secured significant funding of $23 million in June 2022 from prominent investors, including Paradigm, Circle and Coinbase, the decision to discontinue its product offerings raises questions about Utopia’s future endeavors.

Cunningham told Blockworks in August it could be a decade before crypto payments gain significant momentum. He labeled the current state as far from reality, pointing to regulatory ambiguity as one of the challenges.

Initially developed in secret in 2013 and formally released in November 2019, Utopia touts itself as a crypto payment and stablecoin offramp/onramp. Its main value proposition centers around facilitating on-chain funds to off-chain counterparties.

Use cases include everything from companies seeking to pay their employees in digital assets by attempting to reduce friction among middlemen to venture capital funds sending USD Coin (USDC) to portfolio companies.

Utopia’s solution was developed using Safe, a decentralized custody and asset management system based on Ethereum. Utopia also collaborated with Bridge, a platform assisting developers in transitioning between dollar denominations, encompassing stablecoins, to facilitate its financial transfers.

As of this week, gasless transactions will be turned off while the platform endeavors to respond to support messages. No bugs are expected to be fixed by its engineering team, while its platform will remain “freely available for use until the end of the month.”

Further details on the company’s pivot are expected to be shared in the coming weeks and months, Cunningham said.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Maple Finance has successfully navigated significant market challenges through its strategic pivot to secured lending (Maple v2) and the launch of its Syrup product. Syrup has become a primary growth driver, delivering sustainable, outperforming stablecoin yields and rapidly increasing TVL. The upcoming custody-first Bitcoin staking product (istBTC) presents another significant avenue for expansion. Crucially, Maple has achieved operational profitability, a key inflection point that, combined with a fully vested token and active buyback mechanism, strengthens its investment case. While valuation metrics suggest potential undervaluation relative to peers and growth, the primary forward-looking risk identified is the long-term sustainability of its current high-take-rate collateral staking revenue model.

article-image

Sponsored

Instead of endless wallet popups, users could connect once, set clear rules, and delegate permission to an app or to an AI agent.

article-image

Prediction markets show that people bet in anticipation of things happening far too often

article-image

The agency’s final deadline is in October

article-image

Higher inflation historically lags behind tariff implementation, so don’t celebrate just yet

article-image

VanEck launches its first tokenized fund after financial giants convene at SEC roundtable

article-image

The “GameFi” platform that began its development while part of Zynga is launching another NFT collection