What is Rook (ROOK) Crypto Coin? The Rise and Collapse of a DeFi MEV Token
Nov, 25 2025
ROOK Token Loss Calculator
Calculate Your ROOK Loss
Rook (ROOK) peaked at $831.80 on February 14, 2021 and now trades between $0.14-$0.55. Calculate your potential loss from this historical crash.
Key Facts
- Peak Price $831.80
- Current Price Range $0.14 - $0.55
- Loss Percentage 99.96%
- Current Market Cap $250,000
Important Warning: Rook (ROOK) is effectively dead. No development, no liquidity, no utility. Trading on decentralized exchanges causes massive slippage. This calculator shows historical loss, not current trading viability.
Rook (ROOK) is not just another cryptocurrency. It was once a bold experiment in decentralized finance - a token built to coordinate anonymous traders called "keepers" who hunted for profit opportunities hidden in Ethereum transactions. Today, it’s a ghost story. A token that peaked at over $800, then crashed more than 99.9% - leaving behind a trail of abandoned wallets, silent social media accounts, and a protocol that no one talks about anymore.
What Rook Was Designed to Do
Rook (ROOK) is the native token of KeeperDAO, a protocol launched in early 2021 to solve a problem most people didn’t know existed: Maximal Extractable Value, or MEV. MEV is the profit that can be made by reordering, inserting, or censoring transactions in a block before it’s finalized. Think of it like a stock trader seeing a big buy order and racing to buy ahead of it - except in DeFi, and with smart contracts. KeeperDAO’s idea was simple: instead of letting keepers compete against each other and drive up gas fees, why not let them cooperate? ROOK was the currency that paid them for working together. The more ROOK you held, the more influence you had over how profits were split. It was like a secret club where only those with ROOK could join the hunt for hidden profits. The protocol used something called a "coordination game" - a fancy term for a system where keepers had to trust each other to share profits fairly. Without ROOK, the system wouldn’t work. It wasn’t just a coin. It was the glue holding together a fragile ecosystem of automated traders.How ROOK Worked - And Why It Mattered
ROOK was an ERC-20 token built on Ethereum. Its contract address - 0xfa50...313d4a - still exists on the blockchain, but it’s mostly empty now. At its peak, over 600,000 ROOK were circulating. The total supply was capped at 1.2 million, with around 1.5 million originally planned, depending on the source. That inconsistency alone hints at the chaos behind the scenes. Keepers earned ROOK by successfully extracting MEV from DeFi protocols like Uniswap, Aave, and Compound. They’d spot a large trade, front-run it, and pocket the difference. Then, they’d submit proof to KeeperDAO and get paid in ROOK. The system was elegant - in theory. But here’s the catch: MEV extraction became too easy for protocols to handle on their own. Ethereum upgraded. Flashbots, a competing project, started offering MEV solutions directly to miners. KeeperDAO’s middleman role became redundant. Why pay ROOK to coordinate keepers when you could just use Flashbots for free?The Crash - A 99.96% Drop in Less Than Three Years
Rook hit its all-time high on February 14, 2021 - $831.80. That’s not a typo. A single ROOK coin was worth more than a Bitcoin at the time. By mid-2024, it traded between $0.14 and $0.55. That’s a drop of over 99.96%. The market cap, once estimated at $500 million, now sits below $250,000. Trading volume? Less than $350 in 24 hours. That’s less than what a single Ethereum transaction costs during peak hours. The number of holders? Around 16,180. Most of them bought in during the hype and are still holding - not because they believe in it, but because they can’t sell without losing everything. One user on TradingView summed it up: "This is a dead project, don’t throw good money after bad."
Why Rook Failed - The Real Reasons
Rook didn’t fail because of bad code. It failed because the world moved on. - MEV became protocol-native: Ethereum’s EIP-1559 and Flashbots made third-party MEV coordination unnecessary. - No development: The KeeperDAO GitHub repo hasn’t had a meaningful commit since 2022. The website, rook.fi, looks like a relic from 2020. - No community: Reddit threads are dead. Twitter hasn’t posted since 2023. The 16,180 holders are mostly passive. - No liquidity: You can’t buy or sell ROOK without slippage. Exchanges like Coinbase and Binance never listed it. You need to use obscure DEXs like Uniswap V2 - and even then, orders often fail. Compared to other MEV projects like EigenLayer (market cap over $2 billion), Rook is invisible. It’s not just behind - it’s irrelevant.What Can You Do With ROOK Today?
Not much. You can still hold it. You can still vote on KeeperDAO proposals - if you can find them. But no one’s proposing anything. The governance system is frozen. The token has no utility left. No new features. No partnerships. No updates. If you bought ROOK at its peak, you’ve lost nearly all your money. If you bought it recently, you’re gambling on a resurrection that won’t happen. The odds are worse than flipping a coin and hoping it lands on its edge.
Is Rook Worth Buying Now?
No. There’s no technical rebound. No team announcement. No new use case. The only thing driving the price now is desperation from people who refuse to accept they lost money. Rook is a cautionary tale. It’s what happens when a project rides a hype wave without building something durable. It’s not a crypto coin you invest in. It’s a crypto coin you study - to understand how not to get burned.Where Rook Fits in Crypto History
Rook was part of the 2021 DeFi boom - a time when every new idea got a token, a whitepaper, and a Twitter thread. Many of those projects died. Rook didn’t just die - it vanished. Its collapse was so complete, even crypto historians barely mention it. It’s a reminder that innovation alone isn’t enough. If your solution becomes obsolete because the underlying tech changed, you don’t get a second chance. You get a footnote. Rook (ROOK) is now a data point in a spreadsheet. A chart showing a steep cliff. A warning label on the wall of every DeFi investor: "Don’t bet on the middleman unless you’re sure the middleman won’t be erased by the protocol itself."What is Rook (ROOK) crypto used for?
Rook (ROOK) was the governance and reward token for KeeperDAO, a protocol that coordinated automated traders (keepers) to extract profit from Ethereum transactions (MEV). Holders could vote on protocol fees, profit splits, and upgrades. Today, it has no active utility - no new features, no development, and no meaningful trading volume.
Is Rook (ROOK) still active?
No. KeeperDAO’s GitHub has had no meaningful updates since 2022. The official website is outdated. Social media accounts are silent. Trading volume is under $350 per day. The project is effectively dead, with no signs of revival.
Why did Rook’s price crash so hard?
Rook’s price crashed because the problem it solved - third-party MEV coordination - became obsolete. Ethereum upgrades and tools like Flashbots made KeeperDAO’s role unnecessary. Without demand from keepers, the token lost its purpose. The 99.96% drop from its $831 peak reflects total market rejection.
Can I still buy Rook (ROOK) on major exchanges?
No. Rook is not listed on Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, or any major exchange. You can only trade it on small decentralized exchanges like Uniswap V2, but liquidity is extremely low. Buying or selling large amounts causes massive slippage, often resulting in total loss.
How many Rook (ROOK) coins are in circulation?
As of mid-2024, approximately 617,636 ROOK are in circulation, according to CoinMarketCap and Coinbase. The total supply is around 1.23 million, with a maximum supply of 1.5 million. However, most of these tokens are locked, abandoned, or held by inactive wallets.
Is Rook (ROOK) a good investment?
No. Rook has no active development, no community, no liquidity, and no future roadmap. Its market cap is less than $250,000. It’s not an investment - it’s a historical artifact. Buying ROOK now is gambling on a dead project, not building a portfolio.
Tejas Kansara
November 26, 2025 AT 07:05Jennifer Morton-Riggs
November 26, 2025 AT 08:26It’s wild how fast DeFi projects die when the underlying tech evolves. Flashbots didn’t even try to kill Rook - it just outgrew it. Like a kid outgrowing their shoes and nobody notices until they’re walking barefoot.
Belle Bormann
November 28, 2025 AT 03:52Soham Kulkarni
November 28, 2025 AT 04:23Gus Mitchener
November 30, 2025 AT 00:03Lisa Hubbard
November 30, 2025 AT 08:43Meanwhile, the rest of crypto is building actual infrastructure. We’re not here to bury ghosts.