The Ethereum Layer 2 network Blast announced that it plans to shut down its platform because its maintenance expenses surpass its income, leaving no viable route toward financial viability.
As reported by DeFiLlama, the initiative currently holds slightly above $32 million in total value locked, representing a steep drop from the over $2 billion in TVL it possessed prior to its mainnet deployment in February 2024.
“We debuted Blast with the intention of creating an independent, sustainable network for both participants and builders. Sadly, the financial realities of running the chain are no longer viable,” the team stated Friday in a statement on X. “The continuous expenses required to support Blast surpass the income produced by the L2, and we fail to identify any realistic strategy to achieve economic viability for the network.”
Blast originally sought to deliver native returns for ETH and stablecoins, utilizing yields derived from ETH staking and real-world asset platforms that were directly channeled to participants.
The team is currently urging participants to transfer their funds back to the Ethereum mainnet. Blast explained that it will initially start unstaking its Lido assets, a procedure anticipated to last roughly one week, during which time asset retrievals will be paused. Following the completion of that procedure, withdrawals will reopen with a 24-hour waiting period, allowing users to pull funds via the standard Blast portal up until October 26. Subsequent to that deadline, participants must interact manually with the Blast bridge smart contracts deployed on Ethereum.
Blast debuted in November 2023 following a $20 million investment round spearheaded by Paradigm and Standard Crypto. The network surpassed $2 billion in TVL accumulated from approximately 200,000 early participants prior to its mainnet debut.
The BLAST token dropped by 17% on Friday, bringing its total market valuation down to roughly $23 million.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2026-10-02-blast-ethereum-layer-2-shutting-down-417583.
