Blast has announced plans to shut down its Layer 2 network; users can withdraw funds through its standard interface until October 26, 2026.
- October 26 is the deadline for withdrawals via the standard Blast interface.
- Blast stated that the network's maintenance costs exceed its revenue, leaving no viable path for sustainable operation.
- Withdrawals will be paused for approximately one week during the team's extraction of Lido assets held by Blast.
- After the deadline, can assets still be withdrawn via the bridge contract on the Ethereum mainnet?
In an announcement posted on X on October 2, Blast requested users to transfer their assets to the Ethereum mainnet, including any balances held in Blast PWA. According to the team’s notice, withdrawals via the standard interface will remain available until October 26, after which they will be temporarily paused to process their Lido holdings.
For users who missed the interface deadline, the announcement states that assets can still be withdrawn by interacting directly with Blast’s bridge contract on Ethereum Layer 1. The team said it will publish step-by-step instructions for this process before the deadline.
Withdrawals from Blast will be paused until the delay is reduced to 24 hours.
As part of the shutdown plan, the team will first begin withdrawing Lido assets held by Blast, a process expected to take approximately one week. During this time, the announcement states that user withdrawals will be temporarily unavailable.
Meanwhile, the team plans to reduce the withdrawal delay to 24 hours. However, the notice states that even with the shorter delay in place, the withdrawal function will not be restored until the Lido withdrawal process is complete.
Once the process is complete, the team states that withdrawals will be restored with a new 24-hour waiting period. The request covers assets held on the network as well as balances in Blast PWA, with Ethereum mainnet designated as the target chain.
The announcement distinguishes between the deadline for withdrawals via the standard interface and the method for recovering assets afterward. According to the team’s schedule, the standard interface pathway will end on October 26, and subsequent withdrawals will require users to interact directly with the Ethereum bridge contract.
In the same notice, the team strongly advised users to complete withdrawals by October 26 and promised to release detailed instructions for contract withdrawals prior to that date.
Operating costs have exceeded Blast's revenue.
When explaining this decision, the team stated that Blast was initially launched with the goal of creating a chain that serves both users and developers while achieving financial self-sufficiency. According to the announcement, the ongoing costs of maintaining the network now exceed the revenue generated by its Layer 2 operations.
The team said they no longer see a "viable path" to making this chain economically sustainable.
Therefore, we have made the difficult decision to gradually shut down Blast.
The announcement states that the team's top priority is to ensure the shutdown process is as smooth and secure as possible for users and developers who have built on or supported the network.
Previous reports described Blast as a network built by Blur’s founder, Pacman, and backed by Paradigm. In May 2025, crypto.news reported that Blast had ended its integration with Safe, citing concerns over third-party risks and availability while preparing its own multi-signature wallet solution.
At the time, the team stated that users who had accessed the multisig wallet via the Safe interface could use BrahmaFi’s custodial interface or self-custody. In that earlier announcement, Blast also indicated plans to directly integrate multisig functionality into Blast Mobile to provide wallet access within its platform.
U.S. holders face different tax rules for transfers and exchanges.
For U.S. holders transferring assets between their own accounts, the IRS states that transferring digital assets between the taxpayer’s own wallets, addresses, or accounts generally does not constitute a taxable event. The agency notes that exceptions apply if the digital assets are used to pay fees for the transfer service or are withheld to cover such fees.
In its guidance on service payments, the IRS states that using digital assets to make purchases constitutes a disposition and may result in capital gains or losses. According to the agency, this treatment applies regardless of whether the payment is also considered a cost of acquiring digital assets.
For transactions involving an exchange rather than a transfer of the same asset between one’s own accounts, the IRS states that exchanging digital assets for other property, including assets that differ in kind or degree, may result in capital gains or losses. The agency’s guidance distinguishes such exchanges from transfers between a taxpayer’s own wallets.
The Blast ecosystem has previously experienced project exits and revenue pressures.
In the Blast ecosystem, Fantasy Top also announced its shutdown earlier this year. A report on May 21 mentioned Fantasy Top’s closure, with the trading card game team stating that it would refund pre-seed and seed investors at a 1:1 ratio for every dollar invested.
According to the report, Fantasy Top stated that its operations have been self-funded for two and a half years without using investor funds. The team also noted that approximately $20 million has been returned to the community through ETH, BLAST, and rewards distributed to players and participants.
When describing the project's revenue history, the Fantasy Top team stated that approximately 70% of its lifetime revenue came from the first month after mainnet launch. The report also cited DeFiLlama data indicating that the project previously secured a $4.25 million seed round backed by Dragonfly Capital and Manifold, with cumulative fees on Blast totaling $7.05 million.
An earlier exit involved Pacmoon, which was described as the largest meme coin by market cap on Blast. A report from August 2024 detailed Pacmoon’s plan to migrate to Solana, following complaints from team member Lamboland about Blast’s lack of support for its native token and community.
According to the migration plan reported at the time, Pacmoon would adopt the name ARMY on Solana. The team requested existing holders to burn their PAC tokens by the August 14 deadline to qualify for the ARMY airdrop.