Blast has asked users to move their assets to Ethereum mainnet. Its wind-down plan starts with an approximately week-long Lido exit, followed by a 24-hour withdrawal delay.
Blast is shutting down because the cost of operating the network exceeds the revenue it generates. In an October 2 announcement, the Ethereum layer-2 team asked users to move their assets back to mainnet. October 26, 2026 is the deadline for withdrawals through the normal Blast interface. Assets will still be withdrawable after that date, but the route will change.
The request also covers balances held in Blast’s progressive web app, or PWA. For users, the immediate issue is not just the final date: withdrawals will become temporarily unavailable during an initial stage of the wind-down expected to last about a week.
Lido exit comes before the 24-hour withdrawal delay
Blast says it will first begin withdrawing the network’s assets from Lido. That process is expected to take approximately one week. Even if the withdrawal delay has already been reduced to 24 hours, user withdrawals will remain temporarily unavailable until the Lido exit is complete.
Withdrawals will then resume with the shorter 24-hour delay. The figure therefore does not mean that every request made today will settle the following day. The temporary pause must end first, and the estimate of roughly a week is not a guaranteed completion date.
The withdrawal route changes after October 26
The normal interface will support withdrawals until October 26. After that, Blast says users will need to interact directly with its bridge contracts on Ethereum mainnet to withdraw their assets. The team plans to publish detailed instructions before the interface deadline.
October 26 is not a date when balances disappear. The announcement explicitly says assets will remain withdrawable. What changes is the route: direct interaction with bridge contracts on Ethereum replaces the normal Blast interface.
That distinction matters for anyone accustomed to the app’s simpler withdrawal screen. The team strongly encourages users to move assets to Ethereum before October 26, avoiding the later need for direct contract interaction. Its announcement provides a timetable, rather than the detailed contract instructions it has yet to publish.
Native yield did not make the chain self-sustaining
Blast’s technical documentation describes an architecture in which ETH staking yield on Ethereum, initially sourced through Lido, was passed on to users. That earlier design explains why the wind-down includes a separate exit from Lido positions. Historical yield figures in the documentation should not be read as terms for the new shutdown process.
“The ongoing costs of maintaining Blast exceed the revenue generated by the L2.”
The team also says it sees no credible path to making the chain economically sustainable. It has not disclosed revenue or expense figures in the announcement. The shutdown puts a broader question on the blockchain sector’s agenda: how does a network that pays users yield cover its own bills? As our analysis of layer-2 economics explains, comparing transaction revenue with onchain data costs alone does not capture every expense of running a network.
Blast’s shutdown announcement and withdrawal timetable
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