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Blur follows Blast in closing up shop.

Blur Token Hits Record Low After NFT Marketplace Announces Website Shutdown

Ethereum L2 abstract network will stop operations by mid-December, joining a growing list of L2s and crypto platforms calling it quits. 

The chain was acquired in 2024 as Frame and later rebranded and improved by Igloo Inc., the company behind the NFT marketplace Pudgy Penguins.

What derailed Pudgy Penguins’ Ethereum L2? In an X post, Luca Schnetzler, Igloo’s CEO, justified the move, saying they can’t bleed more money from Pudgy Penguins to fund a chain that hasn’t found product-market fit. 

After losing tens of millions of dollars over two years building consumer products, we still had not found product-market fit. We could no longer justify taking from the Pudgy Penguins business.

Source: X Schetzler further highlighted that the chain’s woes were deepened by limited DeFi activity and liquidity. 

AMBCrypto found that Abstract’s TVL (total value locked) contracted by 83%, from $56 million to $9.5 million. That’s about a 6x decline from the little DeFi activity it had in the past year. 

Source: DeFiLlama The stablecoin market cap, which tracks liquidity, also trended downwards from $12M to $5.6M. 

Besides, Schnedtz cited “prohibitively high costs” as a setback for the chain’s growth in key winning areas. Worth noting, Blast, another L2, also announced it would wind down, citing the same reason.  

That said, airdrop farmers, users who bring utility to new platforms expecting to be rewarded with the project’s token, seemed disappointed. 

Previously, Abstract announced XP, a reward or point system that let users farm in anticipation of the final token debut. Some users felt they should be compensated now that there won’t be a token. 

I think after encouraging users to farm points for a couple years, you have kind of a duty to launch the token if you’re not going to compensate them some other way. Some spent a lot of time, money, and effort on accumulating XP. Not great.

But what’s the need to issue a token that will eventually go to zero if you shut down? It would raise the scam claims that rocked Blast’s BLUR. 

In fact, Igloo CEO Schnetzler echoed a similar sentiment and added,

A token only works if there is something driving demand to it, and launching a token that we don’t have conviction in would have been a disservice to our community.

Will PENGU benefit from Abstract’s shutdown? The exec said their focus will return to Pudgy Penguins to make it a “global and cultural phenomenon.”

Interestingly, the update saw a $1 million freshly funded wallet jump in to acquire PENGU. Perhaps the investor viewed the development as a bullish catalyst for the memecoin. 

On the price charts, though, PENGU was down 21% from its recent high of $0.01. However, the pullback and downtrend could be due for a reversal if the $0.0089 support (golden zone) holds. 

Source: PENGU/USDT, TradingView  Final Summary Pudgy Penguins-backed Abstract will shut down by mid-December, citing “millions” in losses.  The CEO said they’ll focus on PENGU, triggering renewed whale interest in the token. 

Blast, the Ethereum Layer-2 network, is shutting down. Coinbase is pulling the plug on BLAST trading on October 20, 2026.

The exchange says users must withdraw their assets before October 26, 2026.

Blast announced on October 2, 2026, that it would wind down operations because the cost of running the network had climbed past the revenue it brought in.

The wind-down timeline Blast users can keep withdrawing through the standard Blast interface until October 26, 2026. That deadline lines up with the one Coinbase gave its own customers.

After that date, the easy route closes. Anyone still holding assets on the network will need to interact directly with Blast’s bridge contracts on Ethereum.

There is also a short pause baked into the plan. Blast said withdrawals through the bridge will follow a brief hiatus meant to allow staked assets to be extracted.

A token in freefall The BLAST token has fallen approximately 99% from its all-time high. Immediately after the shutdown announcement, the token dropped another 19-47%, depending on where and when you looked. It now trades around $0.00024.

Beyond Coinbase, multiple platforms including BTSE, Bitvavo, and Bybit have announced delistings or trading suspensions for BLAST.

From billions to a rounding error Total value locked on Blast peaked at over $2 billion in June 2024. Today that figure sits at approximately $24-32 million.

At its height, Blast was pulling in around $3.5 million in monthly revenue. Recently, monthly revenue has fallen to as low as $1,793.

What a Layer-2 is, and why this one failed Layer-2 networks sit on top of Ethereum and process transactions off the main chain. The goal is to make activity faster and cheaper while still leaning on Ethereum for security.

Blast’s problem was that costs exceeded what the Layer-2 earned, and there was no viable path to close the gap.

What this means for holders and the Layer-2 sector For anyone still holding BLAST or assets on the network, the priority is practical. Coinbase customers have until October 20, 2026, before trading stops and until October 26, 2026, to move their assets off the platform. Blast users outside Coinbase face the same October 26, 2026, cutoff for the standard interface. Missing it does not mean losing funds, but it does mean navigating bridge contracts directly after the planned pause for staked assets.

The coordinated wave of delistings from Coinbase, BTSE, Bitvavo, and Bybit leaves remaining holders with fewer ways to exit. The slide from around $3.5 million to as low as $1,793 a month in revenue illustrates how capital that arrives quickly can leave just as quickly, collapsing the revenue that keeps a network running.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Ethereum Layer 2 Blast will shut down operations by the end of October, citing challenging operational costs. In an X post, the team said they didn’t see a “credible path” to make the chain economically sustainable. 

The economics of operating the chain no longer make sense: the ongoing costs of maintaining Blast exceed the revenue generated by the L2.

Source: X Users are expected to withdraw their assets from Blast to the Ethereum mainnet. Additionally, for the asset still locked up in Lido, the team said they will need one week to withdraw and make the funds available. 

Reacting to the same, Blast founder Tieshun Roquerre, who goes by “Pacman” on X, said he was “disappointed” with the shutdown. 

I’m disappointed that we weren’t able to make the chain sustainable over the long term. But I’m grateful to the users, developers, and teams who helped give Blast its moment, even if its run was shorter than we had hoped.

Community slams Blast founder for ‘extraction’ A quick spot check showed the chain had flat cumulative revenues from early 2025. Simply put, data showed no meaningful revenue was generated in nearly two years. 

Besides, the total value locked (TVL) across the chain has declined by over 90% from $2.4 billion to $32 million since mid-2024. 

Source: DeFiLlama It’s worth noting that several crypto platforms have also called it quits in 2026. BitMart, BitMEX, CoinEX, and others shut down, citing competition, overwhelming compliance costs, and falling revenues.  

The final deadline for withdrawals will be on the 26th of October. Afterward, any stranded Blast assets will only become withdrawable via the Ethereum mainnet. Unfortunately, Blast’s shutdown has triggered community backlash against the project and the founder. 

For the unfamiliar, pulling funds directly from the Ethereum mainnet without the L2 app is fairly complicated and technical for average retail users. 

Besides, some notable venture capital firms and analysts said the project was “slow rug” and “extractive.” One user said, 

There was never a plan to keep Blast running after TGE. Once the team had fully jeeted their $BLUR bags during the staking program, they slow rugged.

The token’s value has dropped by 98% from a $0.80 peak in late 2024 to $0.02 in 2026. For his part, Mike Dudas, founder of VC firm 6th Man Ventures, slammed the founder,

Pacman, one of the greatest extractors of all time between Blast and Blur. Cut and ran, didn’t have the balls to show his face, absolute disgrace, and those who backed him never called him to account either.

Another critic claimed that the shutdown was “good riddance” and nothing will be lost. 

Source: X It remains to be seen whether retail users will be allowed to withdraw everything without going through the Ethereum mainnet. 

Final Summary Blast will shut down by October 26, citing unsustainable revenue.  The community alleged the project and the founder were “extractive.”

TLDR The Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Blast is ceasing operations after a two-year run BLAST token has plummeted approximately 98% from its initial launch value The platform’s total value locked collapsed from more than $2 billion to approximately $32 million Asset withdrawals must be completed by October 26 via Blast’s user interface The network was created by Tieshun Roquerre, who also founded the Blur NFT platform The Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Blast revealed its decision to cease operations, citing an unsustainable economic model where expenses now dwarf income.

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

In a Friday statement posted on X, the development team explained that the financial model had become untenable as operational expenses surpassed the network’s revenue generation.

“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 team stated.

The BLAST token experienced a 19% price drop immediately after the shutdown announcement. This recent decline compounds a dramatic downturn that has erased roughly 98% of the token’s value since its initial offering.

When Blast debuted in 2024, it attracted significant early momentum. Prior to the network’s official mainnet launch, user deposits had already surpassed $1.1 billion, driven largely by anticipation of a token distribution event.

The Collapse in Key Metrics According to DeFiLlama analytics, the platform’s total value locked reached its zenith at over $2 billion during June 2024. That figure has since plummeted to approximately $32 million.

The revenue picture mirrors this steep decline. Last month, Blast recorded only $1,793 in revenue—a dramatic fall from its June 2024 high of around $3.5 million.

Operating a blockchain infrastructure requires substantial recurring expenditure, including development resources, network infrastructure, and security measures.

The recent surge in cryptocurrency security breaches has forced many projects to allocate additional budgets toward protection. Some security experts suggest that artificial intelligence-powered tools may be lowering the barrier for attackers to identify vulnerabilities in smart contracts.

Meanwhile, the competitive landscape for blockchain networks has intensified considerably. Major corporations with established user ecosystems have entered the market with their own scaling solutions.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase developed Base, an Ethereum layer-2 that leverages the platform’s existing trader community and developer ecosystem. Similarly, Robinhood introduced its own Ethereum scaling network this year, quickly attracting substantial user engagement.

These well-funded platforms with ready-made audiences create formidable obstacles for independent networks like Blast attempting to attract users and application developers.

Origins in the NFT Ecosystem Tieshun Roquerre, who goes by the pseudonym Pacman, established Blast. He previously launched Blur, an NFT marketplace that debuted in 2022.

Blur experienced rapid expansion by incentivizing traders with token distributions. The platform surpassed OpenSea in transaction volume by late 2022 and maintained its growth trajectory through 2023.

Roquerre unveiled Blast in November 2023, positioning it as a network that would provide native yield on Ethereum and stablecoins, complemented by a points system linked to an anticipated token distribution.

This strategy proved effective in attracting over $2 billion in deposits ahead of the mainnet’s official February 2024 launch.

However, Blast’s expansion stalled as the NFT market experienced a broader downturn. The network’s total value locked has declined consistently since reaching its 2024 peak.

Blur has experienced a parallel trajectory. Its total value locked crested above $200 million in early 2024 but has since contracted to roughly $27 million.

The Blast team announced it will shorten the withdrawal waiting period to 24 hours. Withdrawal functionality will be temporarily suspended while the team liquidates assets deposited with Lido Finance, an operation anticipated to require approximately one week.

Users must complete fund withdrawals through Blast’s native interface before the October 26 deadline. Following that cutoff, asset recovery will require direct interaction with Blast’s bridge smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum mainnet.

The development team committed to releasing detailed technical guidance for this direct contract interaction method prior to the withdrawal deadline.

Blast will wind down its Ethereum Layer 2 after concluding that network revenue can no longer support its operating costs. Withdrawals will pause while Blast exits its Lido positions, then reopen with a shortened 24-hour delay. The closure comes less than three years after Blast raised $20 million from Paradigm, Standard Crypto and other investors. Blast is shutting down its Ethereum Layer 2, bringing an abrupt end to a network that once held more than $2 billion in DeFi assets and attracted some of crypto’s best-known venture investors.

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 team announced the decision on Oct. 2 after concluding that Blast could no longer support itself financially.

“We launched Blast with the goal of building a self-sustaining chain for users and developers,” the project said.

But maintenance costs now exceed the revenue generated by the L2, and the team said it sees “no credible path” to economic sustainability.

For Blast users, the shutdown begins with asset withdrawals. For the broader Layer 2 market, the more consequential part of the announcement is the reason behind it: Blast still processes hundreds of thousands of transactions, but those transactions are producing almost no revenue.

What Blast Users Need to Do Blast is asking users to move assets, including balances held in its PWA, back to Ethereum mainnet.

The withdrawal process will happen in this order:

Blast will first begin exiting assets held through Lido, which it expects to take approximately one week. Withdrawals will be temporarily unavailable while that process is underway. Once the Lido exit is complete, withdrawals will resume with the normal waiting period reduced to 24 hours. Users can then withdraw through the standard Blast interface until Oct. 26. Assets remaining afterward will still be recoverable, but withdrawals will require direct interaction with Blast’s bridge contracts on Ethereum L1. Blast says it will publish detailed instructions for those contract withdrawals before the interface closes. Users should rely on Blast’s published withdrawal instructions rather than contract addresses or links circulated through unofficial accounts. The network’s status page still showed mainnet, RPC, block production and batch submission as operational on Oct. 2.

The Oct. 26 date therefore concerns access through Blast’s standard interface. It is not a deadline after which remaining assets automatically become inaccessible.

Blast Still Has Activity. It Barely Has Revenue. Blast’s current numbers make the team’s economic argument easier to understand.

DefiLlama recorded 413,163 transactions and 2,027 active addresses over 24 hours, yet those transactions generated only $23 in chain fees and $9.39 in chain revenue.

DeFi activity has contracted at the same time. As of the latest information, Blast had:

$32.23 million in DeFi TVL $12.36 million in stablecoin market capitalization $34,785 in 24-hour decentralized exchange volume $23 in 24-hour chain fees $9.39 in 24-hour chain revenue 413,163 transactions over the same period DefiLlama separately lists $118.07 million in bridged TVL, which should not be confused with the value currently deposited in Blast DeFi applications.

The combination is unusual but revealing. Blast has not stopped processing transactions. What disappeared is the ability to monetize that activity at a level the team considers sufficient to continue operating the network.

That is a more precise explanation for the closure than simply pointing to falling TVL.

Low transaction fees are one of the main products Ethereum L2s sell to users. But cheap execution also means an L2 needs enough valuable activity to produce sustainable fee revenue after the costs of running its infrastructure are taken into account.

Blast says it no longer meets that test.

From More Than $2 Billion to $32 Million The scale of the reversal becomes clearer against Blast’s launch.

The project opened early access in November 2023 after contributors raised $20 million from Paradigm, Standard Crypto and investors including eGirl Capital, Primitive Ventures, Andrew Kang, Hasu, Foobar and Santiago Santos. Blast’s own website continues to list the funding and investors.

Its central pitch differed from most competing Ethereum L2s.

Instead of leaving ETH and stablecoins idle after they were bridged, Blast was designed to give users native yield.

ETH balances could benefit from Ethereum staking yield, while stablecoin deposits were connected to yield-bearing strategies.

The proposition attracted capital before the full network was even available. By the time Blast approached its February 2024 mainnet launch, the network had accumulated more than $2 billion in TVL from nearly 200,000 early-access users.

Today, DefiLlama’s DeFi TVL figure is roughly $32 million.

That represents a contraction of more than 98% from the network’s pre-mainnet peak.

The decline also exposes a weakness in using TVL alone to judge the durability of a blockchain. Deposited capital can be attracted through yield, token incentives and expectations of future rewards. None guarantees that users will eventually generate enough fees to finance the network operating underneath them.

Blast succeeded at attracting capital early. It ultimately failed the revenue test its own team now considers decisive.

Native Yield Did Not Become a Durable L2 Business Blast’s closure is particularly notable because its original design attempted to solve a genuine capital-efficiency problem.

Traditional bridges can leave assets sitting idle after they move onto an L2. Blast instead built yield into the network’s architecture, allowing balances to earn without requiring users to manually move them into separate staking or lending products.

That gave Blast a recognizable product position in an increasingly crowded Ethereum scaling market.
It did not solve monetization.

The network can process more than 400,000 transactions in a day while generating less than $10 in chain revenue, according to the latest DefiLlama snapshot. The two figures together are more informative than either one alone: usage survived at some level, but its economic value to the chain collapsed.

That also helps explain why the shutdown has relevance beyond Blast.

Ethereum’s scaling roadmap has pushed transaction costs dramatically lower, while the number of competing L2s has continued to grow. For operators, success therefore depends on more than deploying scalable infrastructure or generating transaction count. A chain also needs applications, liquidity and users capable of producing recurring economic activity.

Blast’s wind-down is a live example of what happens when those numbers separate too far.

Millions Remain as Blast Starts Its Exit The immediate focus now shifts from growth metrics to withdrawals.

About $63.5 million remained in Blast’s canonical bridge when the shutdown was announced.

That makes the quality of the wind-down important in its own right.

Blast has chosen a staged exit rather than abruptly terminating infrastructure. The Lido positions come first, ordinary withdrawals resume afterward with a shorter delay, and contract-based withdrawals remain as the fallback once the regular interface is retired.

Blast has also committed to publishing instructions for that final route before the cutoff.

For users, those instructions are now the most important document still to come from the project. For the Layer 2 market, the number worth watching is how much of the remaining bridged capital leaves through the standard interface before Blast hands withdrawals over to its Ethereum contracts.

Alex is a financial markets journalist and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, and he's spent close to ten years trying to answer one stubborn question: what's really driving this? It started in 2016, when Bitcoin refused to make sense to him - and rather than shrug, he stayed with it until it did. That patience became his method. He's less interested in what an asset is doing today than in the plumbing behind it: how liquidity flows, where risk hides, what a chart is quietly telling you that the headline isn't. That lens eventually stretched well past crypto into traditional markets, because the same forces - fear, leverage, incentives, timing - show up everywhere once you know how to look. Most coverage, in his view, insults the reader by stopping at the surface. Price up, price down, moving on. He'd rather leave someone genuinely understanding a move than merely informed that it happened. His path into markets ran through a Tourism degree at New Bulgarian University - proof, maybe, that curiosity beats credentials. With more than 200 deep analyses and over 10,000 articles behind him, he still walks away from most trading days having learned something he didn't know that morning.

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Blast announces shutdown as network costs exceed Layer 2 revenue

8 hours ago

According to HTX market data, Layer 2 network Blast announced it will cease operations as its network revenue is insufficient to cover maintenance costs. Following the announcement, two major South Korean crypto exchanges, Upbit and Bithumb, have added BLAST to their trading watchlists. The token has fallen more than 25% overall, currently trading at $0.000294, with a market capitalization of approximately $20 million.

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Blast is winding down after two years. (Tim Mossholder/Unsplashed)Summary

Blast said it will shut down after concluding that its Ethereum layer-2 network no longer makes economic sense to operate.The closure points to consolidation among blockchains as security costs rise and platforms such as Coinbase and Robinhood build their own networks.Blast activity has dried up after its speculative peak, with assets on the network falling 98% from $2.2 billion in June 2024. Ethereum layer-2 network Blast is shutting down, a little over two years after its launch, as fading activity has left the blockchain unable to cover its operating costs.

“Unfortunately, the economics of operating the chain no longer make sense," the project said Friday in a post announcing the closure. “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."

Its native token, BLAST, fell 19% after the announcement, extending a steep decline since its debut. The token is now down about 98% from launch.

At its launch, Blast drew heavy interest early on. Before the network even went live in 2024, users had deposited more than $1.1 billion, fueled in part by expectations of a token airdrop, CoinDesk reported at the time.

The chain’s economics deteriorated quickly as speculative capital moved elsewhere and activity faded. Total value locked peaked over $2 billion in June 2024, according to DeFiLlama, and has since fallen to only $32 million. Meanwhile, Blast generated just $1,793 in revenue from network usage last month, down from a peak of about $3.5 million in June 2024, DeFiLlama data shows.

Blast total value locked and chain revenue (DeFiLlama)Its demise points to a broader shakeout among blockchain networks.

Running a chain means paying for development, infrastructure and security even after user activity dries up. A recent wave of crypto exploits has drawn additional attention to security spending, while AI tools may also make it easier for attackers to probe code for weaknesses.

Competition is getting tougher, too.

Large consumer platforms with built-in distribution have launched their own Ethereum-based networks. Crypto exchange Coinbase COIN$182.95·Market Closed rolled out Base and has turned its exchange users and developer ecosystem into a source of activity, while Robinhood HOOD$112.68·Market Closed launched its own Ethereum layer-2 network earlier this year, with massive early onchain activity.

That leaves smaller chains fighting for developers, users and transaction fees in an increasingly crowded market. Blast's closure shows what may happen when the economics no longer add up.

Users have until Oct. 26 to withdraw assets to Ethereum through Blast's interface, the team said in the X post. After that, withdrawals will require interacting directly with bridge contracts.

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In brief Blast, the Paradigm-backed Ethereum layer-2, is shutting down, saying it costs more to run than it earns and has no credible path to sustainability. Users have until Oct. 26 to withdraw through Blast's interface. After that, funds remain reachable only through its bridge contracts on Ethereum. Once holding more than $2.3 billion, Blast joins Zero Network and Silicon Network among Ethereum layer-2s winding down this year. Blast, the Ethereum layer-2 network that once drew billions of dollars with promises of built-in yield and airdrops, is calling it quits.

The team said Friday on X that maintaining the network now costs more than it earns, and that it sees no credible path to making the chain economically sustainable. "As a result, we've made the difficult decision to wind Blast down," the team wrote.

Myriad: Where does Ethereum go next? Click to make your prediction.Users are being asked to move their assets back to Ethereum's mainnet, including balances held in Blast's PWA, or progressive web app. Blast said it will cut its withdrawal delay to 24 hours, but withdrawals will first pause for about a week while it pulls the network's assets out of Lido, a liquid staking protocol.

Users have until Oct. 26 to withdraw through Blast's regular interface. After that, funds will remain withdrawable, but only by interacting directly with Blast's bridge contracts on Ethereum. Blast said it will publish instructions before then.

Launched in November 2023 by the team behind NFT marketplace Blur, Blast pitched automatic yield on ETH and stablecoin balances. Paradigm co-led its $20 million seed round, though the firm publicly criticized the launch's messaging at the time. Users deposited more than $1.1 billion before the network went live, and more than $2.3 billion was locked in its bridge by the February 2024 mainnet launch.

The ride got bumpy fast. Blast briefly stopped producing blocks after Ethereum's Dencun upgrade in March 2024. Its June 2024 airdrop set aside $354 million worth of BLAST tokens for users but left many disappointed. By then, total value locked had already slid about 30% from its $2.3 billion peak.

Blast isn't the only layer-2 to fold. In May, wallet maker Zerion said it would wind down Zero Network, its gasless Ethereum layer-2, after about 18 months, giving users until July 31 to bridge out.

Silicon Network, an Ethereum layer-2 associated with South Korean exchange Korbit, stopped accepting deposits Sept. 2. It has given users until Dec. 31 to withdraw, with about $9.75 million still on the chain, according to L2Beat data.

The broader industry is shrinking, too. Hong Kong-founded CoinEx said last month it will close Dec. 22, joining BitMEX and BitMart in a wave of exchange shutdowns this year.

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Blast will shut down its Ethereum layer 2 network after operating costs exceeded the revenue generated by the chain. The team has asked users to move assets back to Ethereum mainnet before October 26.

Blast states that it can no longer see a viable way to make the network economically viable. The decision comes more than two years after its mainnet launch in February 2024.

Blast Sets October 26 Deadline for Normal Withdrawals Users can withdraw assets through Blast’s normal interface until October 26, including balances held in its progressive web app. Withdrawals will still be available after that date, but users will have to use bridge contracts on Ethereum directly.

In addition, as part of the shutdown procedure, Blast will reduce withdrawal delay to 24 hours. However, withdrawals will first pause while the team unwinds assets held through Lido.

That process will take approximately 1 week, and withdrawals will then begin afterwards with the shorter delay. Blast will provide detailed instructions on how to withdraw before the regular interface is closed.

Operating Costs Pushes Toward Shutdown Blast said maintaining the network now costs more than the revenue generated by its layer 2 operations. The team added it does not “see a viable path toward sustainability over time.

“We launched Blast with the goal of building a self-sustaining chain for users and developers,” the team said. The economics of running the network are no longer viable, it added.

The team has not given specific numbers for its operating expenses or network revenue. The move also follows the broader discussion of the economics of Ethereum Layer 2 in the ecosystem.

In addition, the questions around L2 development have also grown as Ethereum and Base differed over transaction standards during recent technical discussions.

Blast Activity Falls From Early 2024 Levels Blast attracted more than $2 billion in deposits before its mainnet went live in February 2024. The network drew users by offering native yield on ether and stablecoins.

Activity later declined, and DefiLlama currently lists the Ethereum Layer 2 with about $65 million in total value locked. BLAST has a market value near $29 million and trades around 98.6% below its June 2024 peak.

Blast was founded by Blur creator Tieshun Roquerre, known as Pacman, and became one of 2024’s closely watched rollups. The team now says its priority is helping users move funds back to Ethereum safely before the interface deadline.

Investment disclaimer: The content reflects the author’s personal views and current market conditions. Please conduct your own research before investing in cryptocurrencies, as neither the author nor the publication is responsible for any financial losses.

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Ethereum layer-2 network Blast is shutting down after its operating costs exceeded the revenue generated by the chain.

In a Friday post on X, Blast said it sees no “credible path” to making the network economically sustainable and asked users to withdraw their assets to Ethereum mainnet.

“We launched Blast with the goal of building a self-sustaining chain for users and developers,” the team said. “Unfortunately, the economics of operating the chain no longer make sense.”

Source: Blast

The network will reduce its withdrawal delay to 24 hours, though withdrawals will be temporarily unavailable while Blast unwinds its Lido assets, a process expected to take about a week.

Users will have until Oct. 26 to withdraw through Blast’s interface. After that, assets will remain accessible, but withdrawals will require users to interact directly with the Blast bridge contracts on Ethereum.

Blast said it will publish instructions for withdrawing directly through the bridge contracts ahead of the Oct. 26 cutoff and urged users to move their assets to Ethereum mainnet before then.

Blast emerged from Blur’s NFT boomBlast was founded by Tieshun “Pacman” Roquerre, the founder of NFT marketplace Blur, which launched in October 2022 and quickly challenged OpenSea by targeting professional traders with token incentives. By the end of 2022, Blur had surpassed then-leading NFT marketplace OpenSea in trading volume and extended its lead in early 2023, fueled in part by its token airdrop and trader rewards.

Roquerre unveiled Blast in November 2023 with native yield on Ether (ETH) and stablecoins and a points program tied to an anticipated token airdrop. The strategy helped attract more than $2 billion in deposits before its mainnet launched in February 2024.

Blast’s DeFi TVL has fallen more than 98% since its June 2024 peak. Source: DefiLlama

However, Blast’s growth proved difficult to sustain amid a broader downturn in the NFT market. Its DeFi total value locked has declined steadily since peaking at roughly $2.2 billion in June 2024, falling by more than 98% since then, according to DeFiLlama data.

Blur has undergone a similar decline. Its total value locked, which rose above $200 million at its early-2024 peak, now stands at about $27 million.

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The network created by Blur founder Pacman is asking users to move their assets to Ethereum mainnet by Oct. 26, with withdrawals paused for about a week while it pulls its assets out of Lido.

Ethereum layer 2 Blast is shutting down as costs outpace earnings

Posted October 2, 2026 at 2:33 pm ET.

Blast, the Ethereum layer 2 network created by Blur founder Tieshun “Pacman” Roquerre, is shutting down, its team announced on X on Friday.

“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 we do not see a credible path to making the chain economically sustainable,” the team wrote.

Blast asked all users to move their assets back to Ethereum mainnet, and said that applies to funds sitting in its progressive web app, the Blast PWA, as well.

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How Withdrawals Will Work To make withdrawals easier, Blast said it will cut its withdrawal delay to 24 hours. As a first step in the shutdown, the team will pull Blast’s assets out of Lido, a process it expects to take about one week. Withdrawals will be unavailable during that time, even once the 24-hour delay is in place, and will then resume on the new schedule.

Users have until Oct. 26 to withdraw through the regular Blast interface. After that date, funds will remain withdrawable, but only by interacting directly with Blast’s bridge contracts on Ethereum. The team said it will publish detailed instructions before the deadline.

Blast’s original pitch was native yield: ether and stablecoins bridged to the network were automatically staked to earn interest that flowed back to users.

From Billions to Millions The network drew heavy demand before it was fully live. When it opened for deposits in November 2023, with withdrawals disabled, Blast pulled in $300 million within days, backed by a $20 million investment from Paradigm and Standard Crypto. Its mainnet followed in February 2024, and the BLAST token debuted in June 2024 at an initial fully diluted valuation of $2 billion.

On Friday, DeFi apps on Blast held about $32 million in total value locked, according to DefiLlama, down from a peak of roughly $2.26 billion in June 2024. L2Beat counted about $90 million in total value secured on the chain, around $50 million of it bridged in through Blast’s canonical bridge.

BLAST traded near $0.00028 on Friday, down about 32% over 24 hours and roughly 99% below its June 2024 high, according to CoinGecko. Its market cap stood at about $20 million.

“We’re sorry to the users and developers who believed in Blast, built on it, and supported the ecosystem,” the team wrote, adding that its priority is making the shutdown “as smooth and safe as possible.”

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46 minutes ago

Layer 2 network Blast announced it will cease operations, as ongoing network maintenance costs have exceeded revenue generated by the L2, with the team noting there is no viable path to achieving economic sustainability. The project is advising all users to withdraw on-chain assets and balances held in its PWA to the Ethereum mainnet, and plans to reduce withdrawal wait times to 24 hours. However, the team will first process the exit of Lido assets held by Blast, a process expected to take approximately one week, during which withdrawal functionality will be temporarily unavailable. Users can complete withdrawals via Blast’s regular interface by October 26. After the deadline, assets can still be retrieved but will require direct interaction with the Blast Bridge contract on Ethereum L1; the team will publish specific operation instructions ahead of the cutoff date.

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Crypto executives and policy groups called on the Senate to move quickly after Senate Republicans released updated text of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act on July 22, while key Democrats attacked the draft's approach to policing crypto conflicts of interest among government officials, the dispute most likely to determine whether the bill reaches 60 votes before the August recess.

Senate Banking Digital Assets Subcommittee Chair Cynthia Lummis released the updated text, which merges the versions passed by the Banking and Agriculture Committees into a single bill. The full text runs 616 pages, according to Fox Business alum and Crypto in America host Eleanor Terrett, who reported the release followed stakeholder briefing calls earlier in the day.

"This is another step in my years-long journey to ensure the U.S. leads the way on digital assets," Lummis said in the statement. "The coming weeks are likely the last real chance we will have for years to get this right." She added a commitment "to reaching a deal in the coming days that will allow this legislation to become law."

The Clarity Act, which cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 in May, would split digital asset oversight between the SEC and the CFTC. Senate Majority Leader John Thune intends to move to floor action in the coming days before the summer recess, his office told CoinDesk.

Coinbase: "Let's Finish This"Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong posted on X that the bill is "ready for a full Senate floor vote."

"The bill represents a true bipartisan compromise with thousands of hours of work on both sides, and it couldn't come at a better time," Armstrong wrote. "There's no federal framework, so bad actors like FTX can harm U.S. customers and much of the industry has gone offshore totally outside U.S. purview."

He said Stand With Crypto members have sent 950,000 messages to members of Congress, and cited polling he said shows 70% of American voters want comprehensive crypto legislation.

Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad thanked Senators Tim Scott, Lummis and John Boozman, writing that "while the industry did not get everything it wanted, this bill is an extraordinary achievement and strikes the right balance." In a thread, Shirzad highlighted 1:1 customer asset segregation rules, federal AML standards, and ethics language that he said covers the president and vice president "for the first time ever."

Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger said in a statement the text "reflects years of work and a major step toward clear rules, strong consumer protections, robust ethics provisions, and continued U.S. leadership in digital assets," adding the group is "reviewing the text closely."

DeFi Developer Protections SurviveThe DeFi Education Fund, which has pressed for developer protections throughout the negotiations, said the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act section is unchanged, meaning non-custodial developers won't be treated as money transmitters. Developer protections under the Exchange Act and Commodity Exchange Act remain, as does the self-custody provision known as the Keep Your Coins Act.

The group counted 25 sections related to sanctions and anti-money laundering, including a new Title IX on law enforcement tools added in response to concerns from law enforcement groups.

"At first glance, this title appears to be smart regulation that will provide law enforcement with appropriate tools without overregulating software developers," the group wrote.

Ethics Section Remains the FlashpointAccording to Terrett, the ethics package was negotiated between the White House and GOP Senators Lummis and Bernie Moreno without Democratic sign-off. It bans the president, vice president, members of Congress, federal judges and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring digital assets for compensation while in office, with a sunset date of Jan. 20, 2029. Covered officials would have to sell crypto holdings or place them in a blind trust, and the Department of Justice would get civil enforcement authority, including the ability to sue exchanges that knowingly list prohibited tokens.

Democrats zeroed in on the DOJ's role. Speaking at a briefing event, Maryland Democrat Angela Alsobrooks called the enforcement proposal "wild and unserious and stone-cold crazy," according to Semafor reporter Eleanor Mueller. "We must empower state-level attorneys general. … It's an absolute that we cannot completely rely on the DOJ given what we've seen," Alsobrooks said.

Texas Republican John Cornyn told Mueller he shares some of law enforcement and banks' concerns over the text and is "diving in … to see if they can be addressed," adding it is "premature" to say whether he would vote against the bill: "We're just getting started."

Moreno pushed back on Democratic criticism, writing that "this ethics provision breaks new ground as the most powerful ethics language in US history," and calling for the bill to get a floor vote.

Clock Running DownThe bill needs at least seven Democratic votes to clear the Senate's 60-vote threshold, a math problem that has hung over the effort for weeks. The Senate leaves for its summer recess in roughly two weeks, and the first week of August is widely viewed as the last window for passage this year, with lawmakers focused on midterm elections after September.

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