EtherFlyer Crypto Exchange Review: Why This Decentralized Platform Shut Down
Back in 2017, when decentralized exchanges were still a novelty, EtherFlyer launched as one of the first DEX platforms registered in Samoa. At the time, it promised something rare: direct peer-to-peer trading without handing over your keys to a middleman. But today, EtherFlyer doesn’t just lag behind - it’s gone. No website. No trading. No user support. Just silence.
What Was EtherFlyer?
EtherFlyer was built as a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange. That meant users kept control of their own wallets. No KYC. No deposits to a central server. Trades happened directly between wallets using smart contracts - the same model that later powered Uniswap and PancakeSwap. It wasn’t trying to be a Coinbase clone. It was trying to be something more private, more permissionless.
Its registration in Samoa wasn’t random. Samoa offered light regulation, making it easier to operate without government oversight. That appealed to users who didn’t want to submit ID documents. But it also raised questions: if no one’s watching, who’s protecting you when things go wrong?
Why No One Could Track It
Here’s the problem: no one knew how much EtherFlyer was actually trading.
CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko - the two biggest trackers of crypto markets - never listed EtherFlyer. No trading volume. No listed tokens. No order book data. By September 2021, CoinMarketCap labeled it as an "untracked listing." That’s not just a technical oversight. It’s a red flag. If a platform can’t even get tracked by the industry’s standard tools, it’s not just small - it’s invisible.
Even CryptoGeek, a niche review site, had only two user reviews. One gave it 5 stars, calling it "efficient." The other gave it 1 star. The average? 3 out of 5. That’s not a failing grade - it’s a lack of evidence. No one was using it enough to generate meaningful feedback.
How It Compared to Other Exchanges
Compare EtherFlyer to Vertex.Market, another small DEX. Vertex had 6 reviews and a 4.7/5 rating. EtherFlyer had 2. That’s not a difference in quality - it’s a difference in adoption.
Even among decentralized exchanges, EtherFlyer stood out for its lack of activity. Uniswap, launched in 2018, hit $1 billion in daily volume by 2020. EtherFlyer never hit $1 million in total volume - if it ever did at all. Without liquidity, even the best DEX is useless. You can’t trade what no one else is offering.
And here’s the kicker: EtherFlyer didn’t even have a public roadmap. No GitHub commits. No team announcements. No blog updates after 2019. That’s not a startup struggling - that’s a project abandoned.
Was It Safe to Use?
Technically, yes - if you could get it to work.
As a DEX, EtherFlyer didn’t hold your funds. That’s a plus. If you lost your private key, you lost your money. No customer service to call. No password reset. That’s standard for decentralized platforms. But here’s the catch: if the platform itself vanishes, your wallet still works. Your coins are still yours - as long as you had the keys.
But if you didn’t know how to use a wallet? If you trusted EtherFlyer to hold your assets? You were in trouble. And since the platform never clearly explained how to use it, many likely did.
US users were never officially blocked. But that doesn’t mean it was legal. The lack of regulatory compliance made it risky. Even if you could access it, trading on an unregistered platform could have tax or legal consequences.
Why Did It Fail?
EtherFlyer didn’t fail because it was a bad idea. Decentralized exchanges are here to stay. It failed because it did everything wrong.
- No marketing. No community. No social media presence.
- No transparency. No volume data. No public team.
- No liquidity. No tokens. No trading pairs.
- No updates. No support. No website after 2020.
It launched during the 2017 crypto boom, when anyone with a whitepaper could raise money. But when the market crashed, EtherFlyer had no reserves, no team, and no plan. It didn’t adapt. It didn’t improve. It just disappeared.
What Happened to It?
As of 2025, CoinCodex confirms EtherFlyer is "no longer operational." The domain is dead. The social channels are inactive. Even the Wayback Machine shows no usable snapshots after 2020.
Forex Peace Army, a platform that tracks scam and failed exchanges, has zero reviews for EtherFlyer - not because people loved it, but because no one cared enough to leave a review. That’s the quiet death of a project: no outcry, no fanfare. Just emptiness.
There’s no official shutdown notice. No email to users. No refund. Just silence.
What Can You Learn From EtherFlyer?
If you’re looking at a new crypto exchange today - whether it’s a DEX or a CEX - ask yourself these questions:
- Is trading volume tracked on CoinGecko or CoinMarketCap?
- Are there more than 100 user reviews from real users?
- Is there a public team with LinkedIn profiles?
- Is there an active GitHub repo or blog?
- Can you find at least one recent news article about it?
If the answer to any of those is "no," walk away. EtherFlyer looked like a legit DEX. But it had none of the signs of a real project. It was a ghost before it even started.
Decentralized exchanges aren’t the problem. Poorly built, poorly maintained ones are.
Is There Anything Like EtherFlyer Today?
Yes - but they’re not hiding.
Uniswap, SushiSwap, and dYdX are all decentralized exchanges with millions in daily volume, public teams, open-source code, and real user communities. They’re not perfect. But they’re alive. They update. They respond. They grow.
EtherFlyer was a footnote in crypto history - a cautionary tale of how not to build a DEX. It didn’t fail because it was decentralized. It failed because it was invisible.
If you’re looking for a decentralized exchange today, don’t chase the quiet ones. Find the ones that talk, that show their work, and that let you see what’s happening - not just in your wallet, but in the whole system.
