Blast, an Ethereum layer-2 network designed to provide faster and cheaper transactions on top of Ethereum, will shut down permanently, according to an announcement from the team. Users are being urged to move their assets back to Ethereum’s main network before October 26, 2026, when the network’s standard withdrawal interface will no longer be available.

Blast said the decision was driven by the economics of operating the network. In an official post on X, the team said that the ongoing costs of maintaining Blast had exceeded the revenue generated by the layer-2 network and that it saw no realistic way to make the business sustainable.

Blast will be shutting down.

We launched Blast with the goal of building a self-sustaining chain for users and developers. Unfortunately, the economics of operating the chain no longer make sense: the ongoing costs of maintaining Blast exceed the revenue generated by the L2, and…

— Blast (@blast) October 2, 2026

The announcement closes out a project that, by the team’s own framing, had set out to become “a self-sustaining chain for users and developers.” According to CoinDesk, Blast generated $1,793 in chain revenue last month. Its total value locked (TVL), which represents the value of assets held on the network, had declined from a peak above $2 billion in June 2024 to approximately $32 million. That represents a drop of roughly 98%, leaving a far smaller pool of assets to move back to than at the network’s peak.

Users Urged to Move Assets Before October 26

Blast is asking users to withdraw their funds, including balances held in the Blast Progressive Web App (PWA), to Ethereum’s main network. The standard Blast withdrawal interface will remain available until October 26, 2026.

After that date, users will still be able to recover their funds, but they will have to interact directly with Blast’s bridge contracts on Ethereum’s main network. A bridge contract is an automated program that holds assets and releases them when specified withdrawal conditions are met. Blast said it will publish instructions for the direct withdrawal process before the deadline.

Withdrawals will be temporarily paused for approximately one week while the team unwinds assets held in Lido, a staking protocol. After that process is completed, Blast plans to reduce the standard withdrawal delay to 24 hours.

Cointelegraph reported that it independently confirmed the Lido unwind process, the planned 24-hour delay and the move to direct bridge-contract withdrawals after the standard interface is shut down.

The closure is an operator-led wind-down. The source article said that no regulatory filings or enforcement actions were involved. Blast’s revenue decline has also been noted across the cryptocurrency industry amid broader discussions in 2026 about blockchain security and sustainability. The shutdown gives that discussion a concrete example: a network winding down because its operator concluded that maintenance costs had outpaced revenue.

What Blast Users Should Do Now

Users holding funds on Blast are encouraged to begin the withdrawal process before October 26. The standard interface remains the simpler route, although users should account for the temporary pause of about one week while Lido-related assets are processed.

Funds will remain accessible through the bridge contracts on Ethereum’s main network after the cutoff, but recovering them will require more technical steps. Users should wait for Blast’s official instructions on the direct bridge-contract process and avoid relying on third-party guides before those instructions are published. Between now and the deadline, the milestones to watch are the publication of those official instructions, the completion of the roughly one-week Lido unwind, and the planned reduction of the standard withdrawal delay to 24 hours afterward.

Users should also verify any withdrawal address or tool through Blast’s official channels before sending funds. The original report is available from CoinLineup.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research before making decisions.