Blast Abandons Layer-2 Plans Amid Financial Insolvency
Blast, an Ethereum layer-2 network, has announced its plans to shut down due to financial reasons. The project's team concluded that maintaining the chain now costs more than it generates in revenue.
The decision was made after analyzing the economics of running the L2 and determining there is no realistic path to economic sustainability. The team apologized to users and developers who built on the chain, stating they made a difficult decision.
Blast is asking all users with assets on the network to withdraw their funds to Ethereum mainnet by October 26. To facilitate this process, the withdrawal delay has been cut to 24 hours, although it will not be immediately available due to Blast's need to first withdraw its Lido staked assets.
The shutdown comes amid a broader unwind of the layer-2 sector, with smaller networks struggling to sustain themselves. Blast launched in early access in November 2023 after raising $20 million from investors, including Paradigm and Standard Crypto.