Cosmos ecosystem faces pressure as Leap Wallet shuts down and NFT platform Intergaze winds down

The Cosmos ecosystem’s struggles appear set to be compounded, as the non-custodial Leap Wallet announced it would stop operating from May 28. The shutdown news arrives as the NFT platform Intergaze revealed it would wind down and remove its rollup from Initia’s ecosystem, moving on from the fading NFT sector, which has failed to sustain activity at reasonable levels.

The announcements arrive during a turbulent period for the crypto space, with only a few subsectors and networks maintaining profitability and reporting sustained growth. 

For the first time ever, in February 2026, stablecoins reported a higher volume than the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network, according to Alex Obchakevich, managing director at Pagga, citing Artemis data. For context, the ACH processes up to 93% of worker pay and 99% of Social Security payments. 

Regulatory clarity from US regulators has also cleared the path for institutional interest from TradFi powerhouses such as BlackRock’s Larry Fink, with All In Podcast host Chamath Palihapitiya also backing tokenization to fully unlock the $150 trillion global equity market. 

While those areas are getting the shine, the digital art and metaverse narrative that powered the NFT drive has fallen flat on its face, while the Cosmos ecosystem continues to adjust to draw in some of the growth that has become concentrated on Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain, as reported by Cryptopolitan. 

Why is Leap Wallet shutting down?

The Leap Wallet team, in a blog, explained that it would take its wallet and associated products offline as of May 28, 2026, after “careful consideration.” The team maintained its optimism about the “long-term future of crypto and the interchain ecosystem,” but it believes this decision stems from a “deep sense of responsibility” to its users and the broader Cosmos ecosystem. 

As for next steps, the Leap Wallet blog reminded users to migrate their assets to compatible wallets before the set date, after which official support channels will be taken offline. That means users may not be able to reach anyone for help if they encounter issues while interacting with the Leap Wallet, Compass Wallet, Leap WebApp, Swapfast, the Leap Cosmos Hub validator, or Leap Cosmos Snaps. 

As of the time of writing, the Leap Wallet Cosmos Hub validator ranks 57th among 200 tracked validators, holding a 0.22% voting power across 656,732 ATOM tokens staked. 

All of those tokens, along with other types of digital assets distributed across Leap Wallet products, are expected to be on the move in the next few days, and with that, a run that started in 2022 is expected to end in a matter of weeks. 

Intergaze rollup ends NFT run

Intergaze, another platform with ties to the Cosmos ecosystem, was more direct about the reason for winding down its rollup platform and removing it from Initia’s ecosystem. It simply said: “The Intergaze rollup is no longer sustainable to operate as a standalone chain within the Initia ecosystem.”

The wind-down notice continued that the overhead-to-revenue ratio did not make sense for continuing to operate the NFT rollup platform. 

Throughout its lifetime as a “curated NFT launchpad and marketplace”, Intergaze processed interactions with almost 20,000 wallets and processed over 435,000 INIT tokens in lifetime trading volume, worth just under $35,000 at current prices, justifying the decision. 

Users now have until the middle of April, 14 days from the wind-down announcement, to migrate their INIT and any other tokens back to the Initia L1, pulling out from the Intergaze rollup completely via the only official bridge provided. It also warned to cancel all open offers on the marketplace or risk losing those locked funds. 

As for NFTs held on Intergaze, they will now be moved to Stargaze on the Cosmos Hub. However, there’s an important caveat: unlike Leap Wallet, where users can still migrate funds with a simple wallet recovery using their recovery phrases, Intergaze users first need to register the Cosmos wallet they linked to their Intergaze EVM before the May 1 deadline.

Creators who don’t want to migrate or are looking to define terms can also reach out to the team by May 1. 

Cosmos’ ATOM token is up more than 3% over the past day in terms of price and market cap, trading at $1.7 at the time of writing. 

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