Blast, the Ethereum layer 2 network created by Blur founder Tieshun Pacman Roquerre, is shutting down after its team said the chain’s economics no longer work.
In a Friday post on X, the team said the ongoing cost of maintaining Blast now exceeds the revenue generated by the L2 and that it does not see a credible path to making the network economically sustainable.
Blast asked all users to move their assets back to Ethereum mainnet. That also applies to funds held in the Blast progressive web app, or Blast PWA.
How withdrawals will work
To make withdrawals easier, Blast said it will cut its withdrawal delay to 24 hours.
As the first step in the shutdown, the team will pull Blast’s assets out of Lido, a process it expects to take about one week. Withdrawals will be unavailable during that period, even after the 24-hour delay takes effect. They will resume later under the new schedule.
Users have until Oct. 26 to withdraw through the regular Blast interface. After that date, funds will remain withdrawable, but only by interacting directly with Blast’s bridge contracts on Ethereum. The team said it will publish detailed instructions before the deadline.
From native yield to shutdown
Blast originally pitched itself on native yield. Ether and stablecoins bridged to the network were automatically staked to earn interest, with that yield flowing back to users.
The network drew strong demand before it was fully live. When deposits opened in November 2023, with withdrawals still disabled, Blast brought in $300 million within days. The project was also backed by a $20 million investment from Paradigm and Standard Crypto.
Its mainnet launched in February 2024. The BLAST token followed in June 2024 at an initial fully diluted valuation of $2 billion.
Network metrics have fallen sharply
On Friday, DeFi applications on Blast held about $32 million in total value locked, according to DefiLlama. That was down from a peak of roughly $2.26 billion in June 2024.
L2Beat put total value secured on the chain at about $90 million, with around $50 million of that bridged in through Blast’s canonical bridge.
According to CoinGecko, BLAST traded near $0.00028 on Friday, down about 32% over 24 hours and roughly 99% below its June 2024 high. Its market capitalization stood at about $20 million.
The team wrote, 「We’re sorry to the users and developers who believed in Blast, built on it, and supported the ecosystem.」 It added that its priority is to make the shutdown process as smooth and safe as possible.