So what actually happened to crypton.sh — nobody seems to have the full story

There is three threads here about crypton.sh and all of them stop in the middle. Renewal price double, then people say they move, then nothing.

I want to know what actually happen because i still have one number there and i cannot tell if i am the last person on a sinking boat or if is fine.

What i know: price double at renewal for everybody around the middle of last year. Some ranges stop being offered. Support answer slower than before but still answer, i test this in February.

So is it a business that got expensive, or is it a business that is winding down and taking renewals until it stops? Anyway these two look the same from outside until the last day.

The pattern you're describing is what a carrier relationship failing looks like from the customer side, and it's the most common way these end.

A service like this rents ranges from somewhere upstream. When the upstream reprices or withdraws — usually because the regulator leaned on them about anonymous SIM allocation, which has been happening steadily across several jurisdictions — the reseller has three options: pass the cost through, drop the range, or shut. Doubling the price and quietly retiring ranges is options one and two, in order.

That's not a wind-down. It's a business absorbing a supply shock and passing it on. It also means the same thing can happen again next year and the price only moves one way.

Still there and still working, for what it's worth. Mine renewed in January at the higher price and the number has been continuous since 2023.

What changed for me isn't the service, it's the maths. At the old price a dedicated number was cheap enough to keep several. At the new one I keep exactly one, for the identity that actually matters, and everything else moved to rentals.

That's probably the honest answer to your question: it didn't die, it stopped being the default and became a specialist purchase.

it didn't die, it got expensive. those look identical from a distance

The same conclusion for me. Actually i keep one and i move everything else, and i notice i do not miss it.

is it worth starting with them now or no

Read the thread you are posting in.