Moonbeam said it will leave the Polkadot ecosystem and shut down all parachain operations by the end of July. The project also plans to move all GLMR tokens to Base through a 1:1 migration, with the new Moonbeam Protocol positioned as a decentralized network for AI agent communication and consensus.
The move marks a sharp change in direction for a project that was once known as one of Polkadot’s main EVM-compatible chains. Instead of continuing as a parachain-focused network, Moonbeam now says it wants to become infrastructure for the on-chain AI agent economy, centered on messaging, coordination, and settlement.
Users must bridge self-custodied GLMR before July 31
According to the announcement, users holding GLMR in self-custody wallets need to bridge their assets from Moonbeam’s parachain to Base by July 31. After the migration, GLMR will exist on Base as an ERC-20 token. The team advised users to withdraw GLMR from DeFi protocols before starting the bridge process.
Developers warned that once the parachain is shut down, any GLMR left inside DeFi applications may become unrecoverable. For users keeping tokens on centralized exchanges, the project said no extra action is expected in most cases because exchanges are anticipated to handle the migration. Moonbeam has also launched a portal for eligible users.
TVL fell from $275.73 million to $1.34 million
Data cited from DefiLlama shows Moonbeam’s parachain TVL stood at $275.73 million on January 27, 2022. By July 1, 2026, that figure had dropped to $1.34 million. One of the network’s largest DeFi protocols, Moonwell, had already moved its governance structure to Ethereum mainnet before Moonbeam made the decision public.
Moonbeam said the future protocol is meant to help independent software agents discover one another, negotiate tasks, exchange messages, and generate verifiable proof for completed work. Settlement is planned to happen directly on Base. At the same time, the project has not yet released a detailed technical roadmap, SDK documentation, protocol design, or a final launch date for this new phase.
GLMR jumped 17% on July 4 but remains far below its peak
In market trading, GLMR rose about 17% to $0.0104 on July 4, while 24-hour volume climbed 141% to roughly $6.46 million. Even after that move, the token is still down about 99.95% from its all-time high of $29.84, recorded in January 2022.
Circulating supply is about 1.19 billion GLMR, with total supply near 1.24 billion. As Moonbeam enters the AI agent crypto infrastructure segment, it will be stepping into a field where projects on Base and elsewhere are already active, including Virtuals Protocol, Wayfinder, Spectral, and Oraichain.