Blast, the Ethereum layer-2 network that once secured more than $2.3 billion in bridge deposits, will begin winding down after its team concluded the chain cannot cover its own operating costs.

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

What is the deadline for withdrawals?

Blast users have until Oct. 26 to move assets back to Ethereum mainnet through the network's regular interface. After that date, balances remain reachable only by interacting directly with Blast's bridge contracts on Ethereum layer-1. The team said it will publish detailed instructions before the cutoff.

Withdrawals through the standard UI will pause for roughly one week while the project pulls residual assets from Lido, the liquid staking protocol. Once resumed, the withdrawal delay drops to 24 hours. Assets held inside Blast's progressive web app follow the same cutover.

How did Blast reach this point?

Launched in November 2023 by the team behind NFT marketplace Blur, Blast marketed built-in yield on ETH and stablecoin balances. Users deposited more than $1.1 billion before the chain went live. By the February 2024 mainnet launch, bridge deposits exceeded $2.3 billion, per the project's disclosures.

Paradigm co-led a $20 million seed round, though the firm publicly criticized the launch's marketing at the time. After Ethereum's Dencun upgrade in March 2024, Blast briefly halted block production. The June 2024 airdrop allocated $354 million in BLAST tokens, but total value locked had already slid about 30% from its early-2024 peak by then.

What happens after Oct. 26?

The team's interface will no longer route withdrawals. Users will need to call the bridge contracts directly, raising the technical bar and the risk of user-error losses. Blast disclosed no plans for the BLAST token or for any residual treasury assets.

The closure caps a difficult year for the Ethereum scaling stack:

• Zero Network, the gasless L2 from wallet provider Zerion, began winding down in May with a July 31 bridge deadline after roughly 18 months.
• Silicon Network, linked to South Korean exchange Korbit, stopped accepting deposits Sept. 2 and set a Dec. 31 cutoff, with about $9.75 million still on the chain per L2Beat.
• Hong Kong-founded exchange CoinEx said last month it will close Dec. 22, joining BitMEX and BitMart in this year's exchange shutdowns.

What does the wind-down signal for L2 economics?

Blast joins Zero Network and Silicon Network among stand-alone Ethereum layer-2s exiting in 2025. None of the three disclosed operating revenue figures. The pattern suggests stand-alone chains built around airdrop-driven demand face harder unit economics than rollups integrated with consumer-facing applications. Funds left in Blast after Oct. 26 remain reachable by directly calling the bridge contracts on Ethereum, which functions as a long-term fallback rather than a hard cutoff.

With the Oct. 26 deadline roughly two months out, Blast's wind-down will test whether an Ethereum layer-2 of its size can execute an orderly exit while keeping user funds retrievable through the layer-1 bridge.