Blast’s planned shutdown of its Ethereum layer-2 network on Oct. 26 creates the most immediate operational deadline in a crowded week for crypto users, with holders urged to move assets before the project’s standard withdrawal interface is retired. The network said ongoing maintenance costs had exceeded revenue, prompting a progressive wind-down and a return of user funds to Ethereum mainnet.
Blast users were told to begin withdrawals before Oct. 26. The process is expected to pause for roughly one week as the network exits positions connected to Lido, the Ethereum liquid-staking protocol. Blast said standard withdrawals would later resume with a reduced 24-hour waiting period.
Assets will remain withdrawable after the deadline, but the process becomes more technical. Users will need to interact directly with the Blast Bridge smart contract on Ethereum rather than through the normal front end, according to the project’s announcement. Blast said it would publish a separate guide for those withdrawals.
The closure places additional pressure on BLAST holders using centralized platforms. Coinbase suspended trading in BLAST and told customers to withdraw tokens by Oct. 26, warning that funds left on the platform could become inaccessible after the network’s closure. Upbit also said it would end BLAST spot trading at 12:00 local time on Oct. 26.
Closing networks put withdrawal windows in focus
Blast’s retreat follows a sharp decline in capital held on the network. The supplied materials put its total value locked at about $32 million, down 98% from a $2.2 billion peak. A layer-2 chain relies on its own sequencer, infrastructure, bridges and support systems while settling transactions on Ethereum; when activity and fees fall, maintaining that stack can become hard to justify.
Galxe users face another Oct. 26 deadline tied to the wind-down of the Gravity Alpha mainnet. The platform said users with G token staking positions or Smart Savings balances must begin unstaking and withdrawals by 11:00 UTC+8, allowing for its seven-day unbonding period.
Galxe said Smart Savings assets not removed or migrated by the cutoff would be transferred to a “smart balance” status. Those balances would no longer be withdrawable under the stated plan.
Balancer is also moving toward an orderly shutdown after BAL holders approved BIP-928, while rejecting the alternative fork proposal, BIP-929. Existing pools are scheduled to continue operating until Oct. 30. From that date, pools will move to withdrawal-only mode where the relevant smart-contract permissions permit it. Balancer said its bug-bounty program will end then, while its V3 Vault is due to pause on Nov. 30.
Ebisu is following a similar timetable. Its front end is set to be disabled on Oct. 30, and the protocol has asked users to close vaults and withdraw Stability Pool deposits and ebUSD decentralized-exchange liquidity. ebUSD minting has already stopped. The project also said the planned EBISU token would not launch, with no airdrop for xEBISU or BOLD holders.
Exchanges and protocol upgrades crowd the calendar
Several exchange support changes are scheduled for Oct. 28. Binance said it would delist all EpicChain (EPIC) and QuickSwap (QUICK) spot pairs at 03:00 UTC, though withdrawals are expected to remain supported until Dec. 28. Upbit plans to end support for the SNX/BTC trading pair at 14:00 local time on Sept. 28 and has set Oct. 28 as the withdrawal deadline for affected assets.
BNB Chain’s Jenner hard fork is scheduled for its BNB Smart Chain testnet on Oct. 28. The upgrade introduces “Payment Lane,” reserving 5% of each block’s gas capacity for qualifying payment transactions. The design would give certain payment transfers reserved processing space during periods of congestion.
Jenner also adds millisecond-level block timestamps for smart contracts and support for CAS20, a proposed compliant-asset standard. BNB Chain said the dates for activating individual features would be announced separately.
Circle will begin deprecating the first version of its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol, or CCTP V1, on Oct. 31, ahead of a full sunset on Dec. 1. CCTP allows native USDC to move between supported blockchains through a burn-and-mint mechanism. Circle has relabeled CCTP V2 simply as CCTP, making the newer version its standard product.
MyNearWallet, an ecosystem wallet for NEAR, is also expected to stop operating on Oct. 31. The service said users should migrate to another wallet or access route. The assets themselves remain on the NEAR blockchain rather than under the wallet’s custody.
Rate decisions arrive alongside corporate events
The shutdown and migration deadlines coincide with a compressed macroeconomic schedule. The U.S. Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to announce a rate decision at 02:00 Beijing time on Oct. 29, followed by a press conference at 02:30. The European Central Bank is due to release its decision at 21:15 Beijing time the same day, with a press conference 30 minutes later. The Bank of Japan is scheduled to announce its own decision on Oct. 30.
Policy decisions from the three central banks can affect financing conditions, currency markets and risk appetite across digital assets, particularly during a week when traders may already be moving funds from closing networks and delisted tokens.
Strategy has two events on the calendar. Shareholders will vote on Oct. 28 on a proposed change to dividend accrual for its STRC preferred stock. The company proposed that dividends accrue daily by calendar day while leaving the regular dividend rate and overall amount unchanged. Strategy has stated that STRC carries a 12% annualized dividend rate, reset monthly, with two dividend payments each month.
The company will report third-quarter earnings after the U.S. market closes on Oct. 29 and hold a webcast at 5 p.m. Eastern time.
Compensation, regulation and late-month deadlines
Ostium plans to open the second phase of its compensation portal on Oct. 30 for OLP holders who lost more than 1,000 USDC and did not choose a simplified distribution. The protocol said a July attack caused $23.75 million in losses.
The proposed “A” track offers installment repayments in USDC using recovered assets, future recoveries and protocol revenue. Ostium said 50% of opening fees would initially support that pool. A “B” track would convert losses into Ostium Labs equity using the valuation of its next financing round.
In Brazil, virtual asset service providers must submit authorization applications to the central bank by Oct. 30, 2026, according to the supplied material. Brazil’s central bank issued three resolutions in November 2025 covering licensing, capital requirements and foreign-exchange rules. The cited requirements set minimum capital levels of roughly 10.8 million to 37.2 million reais depending on the license category.
StandX will open claims for a one-time DUSD airdrop on Nov. 1, after beginning a shutdown process and placing perpetual contracts into reduce-only mode. Claims are scheduled to close on Dec. 31, while remaining open positions are due to be closed at the mark price on Jan. 15, 2027. DUSD redemption and withdrawals are scheduled to end on Jan. 31.
The concentration of deadlines makes custody and access routes central practical issues through the end of October. Users of Blast, Galxe, Ebisu and MyNearWallet face different technical steps and cutoff times, while exchange delistings may remove the simplest route for trading or withdrawing affected tokens.
Managing withdrawals across L2 shutdowns? Deepen your understanding with Toobit Academy’s guide on Bitcoin layer-2 networks.
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