Prominent Web3 Projects Abandon Discord: Is the “Community Era” Over?

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Two major crypto projects have announced plans to remove their communities from Discord.

Web3 Projects Leaving Discord

On January 14, 2026, Anton Cheng noted that decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol Morpho is officially shutting down the project’s public Discord server.

According to the announcement, the Morpho Discord channel will transition to read-only mode starting February 1. Moving forward, all inquiries, assistance, and official support will be handled exclusively through the help page on their website (morpho.org/contact).

Hours later, DefiLlama’s 0xngmi, reposted Cheng’s announcement, confirming that his platform is also “moving away” from Discord. Like Morpho, DefiLlama plans to implement professional user support systems, such as on-platform chat and email ticketing.

Why They Are Leaving: Scams & Scraping

A common reason is cited: security.

According to 0xngmi, it has become nearly impossible for web3 projects to fully protect their communities on Discord. Even if moderators ban scammers from public channels, those bad actors can still target users via private messages (DMs), posing as support staff to drain wallets.

Cheng added another technical concern: bot scraping. In the context of Discord, this refers to automated programs that extract structured data and user lists from channels, often used to build databases for spamming or targeted phishing attacks.

What is Next? The Shift to “Professional” Crypto

For Cheng, reputable projects are transitioning into an era focused more on institutions than on retail community management. The informal, chaotic nature of Discord “degen” chats is being replaced by professional, web2-style customer service.

“It’s because retail doesn’t have liquidity anymore. gotta move to deeper waters.”

@ritualintern, Intern, Ritual Foundation (Team for growth of AI-focused network Ritual Chain)

Industry observers note that this migration has been happening slowly for years. Many web3 communities first migrated from Discord to Telegram, and now, they appear to be moving toward traditional business tools.

“This tracks. There was a shift from Discord to Telegram in the last 2 years. The next shift will be to web2 standards like intercom / live chat / phone support.”

Emily Lai, Chief Marketing Officer, Hype (Crypto Marketing Agency)

iThis article is published on BitPinas: Prominent Web3 Projects Abandon Discord: Is the “Community Era” Over?

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