Blast, an Ethereum layer-2 network that once attracted billions of dollars in user deposits, is shutting down after two years of operation, with the team concluding that the chain no longer makes financial sense to run.

The team shared the news in a post on X on Friday, October 2, saying that the ongoing costs of maintaining the network now exceed the revenue it brings in.

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 ongoing costs of maintaining Blast exceed the revenue generated by the L2, and we do not see a credible path to making the chain economically sustainable," the project wrote in the announcement.

The decision caps a steep decline for the network, which launched in 2024 amid strong early interest. BLAST, the project's native token, dropped 19% following the shutdown announcement, a fall that added to a longer slide that has pushed the token down about 98% from its launch price.

Blast network announces it will cease operations, causing $BLAST to dump 42%.

— CoinGecko (@coingecko) October 3, 2026

How Blast's Numbers Fell Apart

The network's downturn showed up across every major metric, from deposits to revenue. Interest in Blast was heavy before the network even went live: users had deposited more than $1.1 billion ahead of launch, with much of that inflow driven by hopes of a future token airdrop.

The network's total value locked peaked at more than $2 billion in June 2024, according to data from DeFiLlama. Since then, it has dropped to about $32 million.

Revenue tells a similar story. Blast generated just $1,793 last month, down sharply from a peak of roughly $3.5 million in June 2024. Layer-2 networks typically draw most of their revenue from the fees users pay on each transaction, so income can fall quickly when on-chain activity dries up, even as fixed costs continue.

Running a blockchain network comes with ongoing costs, including development, infrastructure, and security spending. A recent rise in crypto exploits has pushed projects to spend more on security, and some researchers say AI tools may make it easier for attackers to find weaknesses in code.

At the same time, competition among blockchain networks has grown. Larger companies with built-in user bases have launched their own networks. Coinbase built a network called Base, using its exchange users and developers as a built-in audience, while Robinhood launched its own Ethereum layer-2 network earlier this year and saw strong early activity. In each case, the companies leaned on their existing customer bases to drive activity on their networks. These larger platforms make it harder for smaller, independent chains like Blast to compete for users and developers.

Blast's Roots in the NFT Market

Blast was founded by Tieshun Roquerre, known online as Pacman, who also created the NFT marketplace Blur. Blur launched in 2022 and grew quickly by offering token rewards to traders. It passed OpenSea in trading volume by the end of 2022 and kept growing into 2023.

Roquerre introduced Blast in November 2023. The network offered yield on ETH and stablecoins, along with a points program tied to an expected token airdrop — a structure that became a widespread user-acquisition tool across crypto projects during that period. That approach helped Blast collect more than $2 billion in deposits before its mainnet officially launched in February 2024.

Growth slowed, however, as the broader NFT market cooled. Blast's total value locked has fallen steadily since its 2024 peak, and Blur has followed a similar pattern: Blur's total value locked peaked above $200 million in early 2024 and now sits at about $27 million. The fates of the two projects have been closely linked — both are tied to Roquerre, and both peaked during the 2024 market cycle before entering prolonged declines.

Wind-Down Timeline

Blast said it will reduce its withdrawal delay to 24 hours. Withdrawals will pause briefly while the team unwinds assets held with Lido, a process expected to take about a week.

Users have until October 26 to withdraw funds through Blast's own interface. After that date, people will need to interact directly with Blast's bridge contracts on Ethereum to access their assets — a more technical route that involves calling the contracts through a crypto wallet rather than using a simplified web page. The team said it will publish instructions for this direct withdrawal process before the deadline, and the release of those instructions is the key milestone for users to watch between now and the cutoff.