Ethereum layer-2 Blast is shutting down; Upbit designates BLAST as an investment caution asset
Coinyong
BLAST
Blast announced the shutdown on X on Oct. 2 and asked users to move assets to Ethereum by Oct. 26.
Upbit designated BLAST as an investment caution asset at 1:30 a.m. KST on Oct. 3 and halted deposits; the review runs through the third week of October.
BLAST traded at 0.35 won on Upbit on the morning of Oct. 3, down 38% from the previous close.
Blast, an Ethereum layer-2 network (a secondary network that processes transactions on top of Ethereum), is shutting down. Blast said on its official X account at 11:45 p.m. KST on Oct. 2 that "Blast will be shutting down," and asked users to move their assets to Ethereum mainnet by Oct. 26. South Korean exchange Upbit designated the BLAST token as an investment caution asset at 1:30 a.m. KST on Oct. 3, less than two hours later.
Running the chain cost more than it earned
"Unfortunately, the economics of operating the chain no longer make sense," Blast said in the post. The team apologized "to the users and developers who believed in Blast, built on it, and supported the ecosystem," and said its priority now is making the shutdown as smooth and safe as possible.
"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."
Blast official X account
Blast was launched in November 2023 by the team behind NFT marketplace Blur. It drew large deposits even before its mainnet opened by offering automatic yield on deposited ether (ETH) and stablecoins and by fueling expectations of an airdrop (a free token distribution). Total value locked (TVL) on Blast peaked at $2.2594 billion on June 6, 2024, according to DefiLlama, and had fallen to $32 million by Oct. 2. CoinDesk, citing DefiLlama data, reported that Blast earned $1,793 in revenue from network usage last month.
Withdrawals pause for a week, then a 24-hour delay
Blast said it will cut its withdrawal delay to 24 hours. As the first step of the shutdown, however, it will withdraw the assets Blast holds in Lido, an Ethereum staking service. Blast said that process will take about a week and that withdrawals will be temporarily unavailable in the meantime. Withdrawals with the 24-hour delay will resume only after the Lido assets are recovered.
| Oct. 2 | Shutdown announced |
|---|---|
| About 1 week | Lido assets withdrawn; withdrawals temporarily paused |
| After that | Withdrawals resume with a 24-hour delay |
| Oct. 26 | Deadline for normal withdrawals through the Blast interface |
Assets will remain withdrawable after Oct. 26, but users will need to interact directly with the Blast bridge contracts (the mechanism that moves assets between networks) on Ethereum mainnet. Blast said it will publish detailed instructions before then. Balances held in the Blast progressive web app (PWA) must also be moved. Blast did not say in the post what will happen to the BLAST token.
Upbit to review through the third week of October
Upbit said in its notice that, after reviewing the project under the industry's best practices for virtual asset trading support, it found shortcomings in the project's substance and sustainability and a possibility of harm to users, citing Blast's shutdown announcement. The designation covers three markets: the Korean won market, the BTC market and the USDT market. It runs through the third week of October (Oct. 12-16), during which Upbit will decide whether to extend the designation, lift it or end trading support, and will announce the result separately.
What holders should do
Upbit stopped accepting BLAST deposits at 1:30 a.m. KST on Oct. 3. The exchange said deposits sent after that time will not be credited and may not be recoverable, so users should not send BLAST to Upbit. Users with assets on the Blast network need to move them to Ethereum before Oct. 26 once withdrawals reopen.
BLAST falls 38% in a day
BLAST traded at 0.35 won on Upbit at 7:30 a.m. KST on Oct. 3, down 38% from the previous close of 0.568 won, after falling as low as 0.342 won during the session. Trading value on Upbit over the past 24 hours was about 12.9 billion won. Upbit's 52-week high is 3.02 won, set on Oct. 7 last year. At the same time, BLAST traded at 0.3955 won on Bithumb, down 23% from the previous day, and at $0.0002509 on crypto exchange Bybit, down 39% over 24 hours.