Blast to Shut Down Network as Costs Outstrip Revenue; TVL at $32 Million
Summary
- Ethereum layer-2 Blast said it will shut down the network because the cost of maintaining the chain exceeded revenue.
- Blast's total value locked (TVL) has dropped sharply to about $32 million from more than $2 billion.
- After the network shutdown announcement, the Blast token fell 17%, reducing its market capitalization to about $23 million.
Ethereum layer-2 network Blast is shutting down after the cost of running the chain exceeded revenue.
The Block reported on Oct. 5 that Blast said in a recent post on X that the cost of maintaining the chain had surpassed the revenue generated by the layer-2 network and that it had not found a realistic path to an economically sustainable model.
Blast's total value locked, or TVL, is now about $32 million. That is a steep drop from more than $2 billion before its mainnet launch in February 2024.
Blast asked users to withdraw their assets to the Ethereum mainnet. It will first begin the process of retrieving assets deposited with Lido, which is expected to take about a week.
Once that process is complete, withdrawals will resume, and users will be able to withdraw assets through the Blast interface until Oct. 26. After that, they will need to use the Blast bridge contract on Ethereum directly.
Blast launched in November 2023 after raising $20 million in a funding round led by Paradigm and Standard Crypto.
The Blast token fell 17% after the network shutdown announcement, reducing its market capitalization to about $23 million.
Minseung Kang
minriver@bloomingbit.ioBlockchain journalist | Writer of Trade Now & Altcoin Now, must-read content for investors.