You asked about DeFi
23 people built something like it. 6 are gone.
That is 29% of the ones whose fate we could settle, against 23% across the whole register. 2 were acquired.
| Launched | What it was | Today |
|---|---|---|
| 2012-01-01 | YCLendUp LendUp is a socially responsible company on a mission to redefine… · lendup.com | gone |
| 2017-06-01 | YCZendar We make high definition radar allowing self-driving cars to see in… · zendar.io | still up |
| 2014-06-01 | Hiro Systems build developer tools for Bitcoin L1 and the Stacks L2 · hiro.so | still up |
| 2019-06-01 | YCRainbow Open-source, design centric software for interacting with blockchains · rainbow.me | still up |
| 2019-01-01 | YCGlobe coinbase for derivatives · globe.exchange | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | YCMagna Carta for Web3: token vesting and DeFi investment management. · magna.so | acquired |
| 2022-01-01 | YCCypher Crypto Neo-Bank (WhatsApp moment for bank accounts) · cypherhq.io | still up |
| 2012-01-01 | Building Mission Critical Software Defined Radio products. · pervices.com | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | YCApollo Payments & Loyalty Infrastructure · apollofirst.xyz | still up |
| 2021-01-01 | YCTaoFi The financial layer for decentralized AI · taofi.com | acquired |
| 2021-01-01 | YCFlux Cross border Payments infrastructure for internet businesses and… · iflux.app | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | Creating genre-defining multiplayer VR games. · ruffnauts.com | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | YCHedgehog Cryptocurrency Robo-adviser. Buy. Balance. Relax. · hedgehog.app | gone |
| 2022-06-01 | Building the definitive all-in-one on-device AI productivity tool · anythingllm.com | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | Decentralized, anonymous, and accountable identity on Web3. · notebooklabs.xyz | gone |
| 2022-01-01 | YCCashmere Crypto wallet for web3 startups · cashmere.finance | gone |
| 2026-06-01 | YCDefinite Build everyday back-office agents on one live model of your books · usedefinite.com | still up |
| 2023-01-01 | DeFi for Everyone · rainmaker.nyc | still up |
| 2015-06-01 | YCjEugene jEugene highlights undefined terms and unused definitions in legal… · jeugene.com | gone |
| 2022-06-01 | YCEthosX The protocol for derivatives on blockchains · ethosx.finance | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | YCPayfura Global payment gateway to buy/sell crypto · payfura.com | gone |
| 2026-06-01 | YCMosaic Defining the frontier of multiplayer AI. · mosaic.inc | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | YCKeylika Redefining the Standard of Care for Iron Deficiency Anemia · keylika.com | still up |
How this compares
The register re-probes every domain it holds. Some that answered last month stop answering. We send that list — what went quiet, and what it was — once a month. Nothing else.
How this was made. Show HN entries are every post from 2021 to 2023 with at least five points that linked to its own domain; code hosts and free hosting are excluded, because a repository outlives the effort behind it. Product Hunt entries needed 100 votes — a far higher bar, so they are the promoted top slice rather than a like-for-like sample. Both are judged by asking the domain whether it still answers: gone means it no longer resolves, refuses the connection, serves a parking page, or says plainly that it shut down. An HTTP error is not counted as gone — a server answering 404 is one somebody still pays for, and an audit of 25 gone-calls found two such sites alive with only a moved homepage. Y Combinator entries use the status YC publishes itself, which is why only those can say acquired. Squatted domains — a lapsed name now serving somebody else's site — are not detected, so these figures run slightly low.