Ethereum Network Blast Stops: Users Need to Move Crypto
Blast is shutting down its Ethereum network after a huge downturn. Users get until October 26 to move their funds to Ethereum.
The Ethereum network blast is stopping. According to the team, the blockchain does not generate enough revenue to be able to pay the costs. Users get until October 26 to retrieve their crypto through the normal way.
The demise is striking. At its peak, there was about $2.2 billion in the network. More than 98 percent of this has now disappeared.
Blast announced on Friday that the network is no longer financially viable.
“We launched Blast with the goal of building a self-sustaining chain for users and developers,” the team said. "Unfortunately, the operation of the chain is no longer economically viable."
Users will be given until October 26 to withdraw their funds. The waiting time for recordings is reduced to 24 hours.
At this time, recordings are temporarily not possible. Blast must first release funds that are at strike platform Lido. That is expected to take about a week.
After that, users can take back their belongings and move them to Ethereum. This will remain possible after 26 October, but the process will become a lot more complicated. Users must then directly use the technical connection between Blast and Ethereum.
The team therefore advises not to wait until after the deadline.
Blast was announced at the end of 2023 by Tieshun “Pacman” Roquerre, who is also behind NFT marketplace Blur. The network attracted users at lightning speed by offering automatic returns on Ether (ETH) and stablecoins.
Blast also played into the hunt for free crypto coins. A points program allowed users to prepare for a future airdrop.
That strategy worked particularly well at first. Even before Blast was officially launched in February 2024, users had already sent more than $2 billion to the platform.
In June of that year, capital within Blast peaked at around 2.2 billion dollars. Then it quickly went downhill.
According to DeFiLlama, more than 98 percent of that capital has now disappeared. Blur also took a hard hit. There, the committed capital fell from more than 200 million dollars at the beginning of 2024 to about 27 million dollars.
For Blast, the relapse is now fatal. According to the team, with much less money and activity on the network, the revenues are no longer sufficient to keep the blockchain running.