PANews reported on October 2 that Blast announced on the X platform that it would cease operations. Blast stated that its goal when it was launched was to build a chain that was self-sufficient for users and developers, but the economics of operating the chain were no longer reasonable: the ongoing costs of maintaining Blast exceeded the revenue generated by L2, and no credible path was seen to make the chain economically sustainable, so it was decided to gradually shut down Blast.
Blast said its current priority is to make the shutdown as smooth and safe as possible, requiring all users to withdraw assets from Blast to the Ethereum mainnet, including balances in the Blast PWA. To facilitate withdrawals, the withdrawal delay will be reduced to 24 hours. As part of the shutdown process, Blast will first withdraw its Lido assets, which is expected to take about a week, during which withdrawals will be temporarily unavailable even if the withdrawal delay has been reduced to 24 hours. Once the process is complete, withdrawals will resume with a new 24-hour delay. Users need to withdraw money through the normal Blast interface before October 26, 2026. Assets can still be withdrawn after this date, but users will need to interact directly with the Blast cross-chain bridge contract on Ethereum L1, and Blast will release detailed instructions before that date.