Proof of Attendance Protocol shuts down after five years, raising questions about utility NFT viability

POAP, the protocol that turned “I was there” into a verifiable on-chain credential, has stopped issuing new badges after more than five years of operation. The project entered maintenance mode on March 16, 2026, ending one of the more wholesome experiments in blockchain’s brief history. From hackathon idea to 6.7 million badges POAP started life in 2019 at ETHDenver as a hackathon project. The concept was elegantly simple: attend an event, get a blockchain-verified badge proving you were there. The idea caught on fast. POAP Inc. was formally established in 2021, riding the wave of NFT enthusiasm that turned everything from profile pictures to concert tickets into tokenized assets. By the time it wound down, the protocol had minted over 6.7 million unique digital attestations. Those badges showed up everywhere. Crypto conferences, DAO governance meetings, community calls, even in-person meetups. In January 2022, the project raised $10 million to expand its offerings and tackle problems like spam. The business model problem nobody wanted to talk about POAP operated without a native token. No token meant no built-in revenue flywheel. No speculative premium to attract traders. No treas...