Overview
- Blast announced Oct. 2 that it will wind down the network because the ongoing costs of development, infrastructure and security now exceed the revenue the chain generates.
- The team paused withdrawals while it pulls Blast’s Lido holdings, a process it expects to take about one week before resuming exits with a 24-hour withdrawal delay.
- Users have until Oct. 26 to withdraw through Blast’s normal interface and after that date funds remain recoverable only by interacting directly with Blast’s bridge contracts on Ethereum mainnet.
- On-chain data show total value locked fell from more than $2 billion in mid-2024 to only tens of millions today and the BLAST token has lost roughly 98% of its peak value.
- Blast did not publish detailed revenue or cost figures but apologized to users and developers, and the shutdown underscores a wider shakeout as bigger platforms draw activity and security costs rise for small L2s.