DeFi Protocols Flee Discord as Scammers Turn Platform Into “Hunting Ground”

Decentralized finance protocols are increasingly stepping back from public Discord servers, arguing that a platform once central to crypto community building has turned into a security risk that is harder to justify as the sector matures.

The shift moved into sharper focus this week after Morpho, a major DeFi lending protocol, announced that its public Discord server would be placed into read-only mode from February 1, 2026, redirecting users to a dedicated help page and chat-based support system instead.

Morpho's shutting down its public Discord. Didn't see that coming.

This could be a trend for other protocols too—scams, bot scraping, or just too much noise might be at play. But maybe its also signals that big DeFi teams are focusing more on institutions and less on… pic.twitter.com/k3UeCKXyaS

— Anton Cheng (@antonttc) January 14, 2026

Morpho’s decision reflects a broader concern shared by several large DeFi teams that Discord has become a prime hunting ground for scammers, with users often targeted at the very moment they ask for help.

Morpho Shuts Discord, Citing Scams and Support Risks

In an announcement shared publicly, the protocol said the change was aimed at providing “safer, more reliable support,” consolidating all official communication through controlled channels rather than open chat rooms.

Paul Frambot, Morpho’s co-founder and chief executive, said Discord had become “more negative than positive” from a user support perspective, citing persistent noise and scam attempts despite moderation efforts.

Discord is great but not built for user support, and unfortunately there's a lot of noise and scams so it had become more negative than positive in our perspective.

I think many other projects will follow this move! https://t.co/TxcFd9HuZF

— Paul Frambot 🦋 (@PaulFrambot) January 14, 2026

Morpho co-founder Merlin Egalite added that even with safeguards in place, the platform’s structure made it difficult to fully protect users from direct-message scams.

Moving from Discord was not an easy choice BUT:
– Discord is actually full of scammers. people would get phished while actually searching for answers despite heavy monitoring, safeguards, etc.
– We've been testing intercom so far and it has made support 100x easier: instant… https://t.co/L0kvzB1YGm

— Merlin Egalite 🦋 (@MerlinEgalite) January 14, 2026

Morpho has been testing alternative tools, including Intercom, which Egalite said made support easier to manage through features such as ticketing, instant translation, and automated assistance, while reducing exposure to impersonation attacks.

The problem extends well beyond a single protocol, as DeFi data platform DefiLlama has also been moving away from Discord, shifting toward live support chats and email-based ticket systems.

Its pseudonymous founder, known as 0xngmi, said Discord makes it “impossible to protect users from getting scammed.”

at defillama we've also been moving away from discord into other channels like live support chat & email tickets

discord makes it impossible to protect your users from getting scammed, even if you ban scammers instantly they still DM users directly to scam them https://t.co/ZLmw8yapFx

— 0xngmi is hiring (@0xngmi) January 14, 2026

He noted that DefiLlama opted for a hybrid approach, keeping Discord available behind additional verification steps to limit bots and funnel most users toward safer support channels.

Scams, Burnout, and Data Risks Put Discord Under DeFi Spotlight

Industry voices across the ecosystem have echoed similar frustrations, as Richard Rodairos, a talent partner at Dragonfly, described public Discord servers as one of the lowest-signal communication surfaces in crypto today.

Get rid of most discords in crypto. It would actually do the industry good long term.

Public discords have become one of the lowest signal surfaces in the space:

Serious users don’t need a 10k member chat room to get value. Real builders want clear docs, async support, and… pic.twitter.com/FlkJjPEXYI

— Richard (@Rodairos) January 14, 2026

Aavechan Initiative founder Marc Zeller called Discord “full of scammers” and said Morpho’s move should prompt other major protocols, including Aave, to reconsider their reliance on the platform.

Nifty Gateway co-founder Duncan Cock Foster also chimed in, noting that Discord moderation had been one of the most exhausting processes of his business and applauding the move made by Morpho as a reasonable one.

At the same time, the shift has sparked debate about what is lost when DeFi projects retreat from open community spaces.

Some community members argue that Discord, despite its flaws, has been central to peer-to-peer collaboration, allowing users to share experiences, provide feedback, and follow development discussions in real time.

Others counter that the issue lies not with Discord itself but with poor execution, pointing out that features such as disabling direct messages, stronger verification, and on-chain tooling can significantly reduce scam activity if properly implemented.

Security concerns around Discord have been heightened by recent incidents outside of DeFi.

In October, Discord confirmed that an unauthorized party had accessed a third-party Zendesk support system, exposing sensitive data linked to age verification appeals.

Cybersecurity researchers claimed that more than two million passport and driver’s license images were exfiltrated in the breach, raising broader questions about how user data is handled and stored.