ABFinance Cancels Launch Plan and Ends Operations in an Orderly Manner
ABFinance announced on Twitter that the planned launch will not take place, and operations are being gradually and orderly concluded.
Previously, former Bybit co-CEO Helen Liu revealed on platform X that a new platform, ABFinance, would be launched, aiming to build a business under U.S. regulation that integrates deposit, earning, trading, and consumption functions, connecting fiat and cryptocurrency.
The company expressed gratitude to the community, partners, and co-builders for their trust and support, with Helen Liu also sharing her reflections and gratitude on the end of this journey.
ABFinance officially debuted around March 2026, and it is about four months since the announcement of its shutdown, with no specific reasons disclosed.
In 2026, several cryptocurrency companies and projects have closed, indicating that the industry is in a phase of consolidation and exit.
Market mechanisms show that funds are flowing back to compliant platforms or remaining cautious, driven by operational and market environment pressures; benefiting are existing large compliant exchanges, while early-stage teams and related investors are under pressure.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
After leaving Bybit, Helen Liu quickly founded ABFinance, positioning it as a fully compliant financial infrastructure in the U.S., attempting to integrate traditional deposit earning with cryptocurrency trading and consumption, continuing her experience of extending the platform from pure trading to comprehensive finance during her time at Bybit.
In terms of capital pathways, the team aimed to attract compliant funds and users starting with a U.S. license, motivated by the desire to establish a first-mover advantage during a window of regulatory clarity, but the swift transition to an orderly shutdown reflects that the execution and market matching difficulties exceeded expectations.
Similar cases can be seen with other former exchange executives founding compliant new platforms that quickly retract during bear markets or regulatory transition periods; currently, cryptocurrency startups are adjusting from high-growth expansion to streamlined survival and consolidation.
Structural judgment indicates a reconstruction of the industry chain: emerging compliant platforms are facing narrowing survival space under the pressure from leading exchanges and bank-related products, with the mechanism being that users and liquidity are concentrating towards a few mature compliant entities, forcing small and medium new platforms to exit early.
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