Sophon mainnet shuts down and users withdraw assets

Sophon will shut down its mainnet on Nov. 30, ending the operation of a blockchain network that raised more than $70 million and launched less than two years ago. Users have until Nov. 25 to withdraw assets and claim outstanding rewards before the network is taken offline, according to the project’s shutdown instructions.

The closure follows Sophon’s decision in June to stop maintaining its Layer 2 chain and move its applications and activity toward Base, the Ethereum Layer 2 network. Sophon said the change would redirect money and engineering effort away from maintaining blockchain infrastructure and toward consumer-facing applications.

Users holding SOPH, ETH, USDC, staking rewards, or Guardian rewards on the Sophon network have been directed to claim.sophon.com. Users with farm positions must use farm.sophon.xyz, while node holders are required to follow a separate migration process published by the project.

Multi-million-dollar operating costs drove the decision

Sophon estimated that maintaining its network required about $3.4 million in annual fixed costs. Those costs covered blockchain infrastructure, rollup-as-a-service providers, data systems, analytics, and developer tools, according to the project’s June announcement.

The team said closing the chain would cut roughly $3 million in annual expenses. That saving was presented as a way to extend Sophon’s financial runway while it builds applications on Base rather than running a dedicated general-purpose network.

Sebastien, Sophon’s co-founder, said in June that the project was shifting resources from infrastructure toward applications. The strategy reflects a difficult calculation for newer blockchain teams: a custom network can offer control over fees, execution, and technical design, but maintaining it can remain expensive even when on-chain usage is limited.

Sophon’s own network data illustrates that gap. DeFiLlama recorded total value locked on Sophon at about $20.10 million on May 30, 2025. That figure later fell to roughly $16,500. The same DeFiLlama data showed network fees, revenue, and active addresses dropping to zero.

A chain with little remaining activity has few ways to offset fixed infrastructure costs. Moving to Base would give Sophon access to an established Ethereum ecosystem without requiring the project to bear the full expense of operating its own chain.

Exchange and infrastructure support has already been withdrawn

The shutdown plan has already affected the services around the network. Binance halted deposits and withdrawals through the Sophon chain, while LayerZero ended off-chain support for the network. Upbit also terminated trading support connected to Sophon.

Those changes reduce the routes available to users moving assets and make the Nov. 25 withdrawal deadline particularly relevant for holders with funds still on the chain. Sophon has told users to complete withdrawals, reward claims, and farm-related actions before the deadline rather than waiting for the Nov. 30 shutdown.

The project has also noted that SOPH exists as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum. That provides a route for the token to continue existing beyond the Sophon mainnet, though it does not preserve applications, rewards systems, or assets that remain tied to the discontinued network.

New deposits for node holders were closed on June 25, according to the migration guidance. Node operators now face a separate transition from ordinary token holders, reflecting the fact that node-sale participants had roles tied directly to Sophon’s network infrastructure.

A rapid change for a heavily funded project

Sophon attracted substantial backing before and after its mainnet launch. In March 2024, the project announced a $10 million funding round backed by Paper Ventures, Maven 11 Capital, The Spartan Group, SevenX Ventures, OKX Ventures, and HTX Ventures.

Two months later, Sophon said it had raised another $60 million through node sales. Binance Labs, which has since become YZi Labs, disclosed an investment in Sophon in October 2024, although neither party disclosed the size of that investment.

The mainnet went live in December 2024. Sophon then held its SOPH token generation event in May 2025, creating a total supply of 10 billion tokens. The project allocated 57% of supply to the community and reserved 9% for an airdrop.

SOPH subsequently listed on Binance, OKX, Upbit, and Gate. The token reached $0.111 before retreating and moving lower as the chain’s closure plans emerged. The price decline occurred alongside the withdrawal of network support and the sharp contraction in value locked on Sophon.

The short operating life of the network places Sophon among projects reassessing whether a standalone chain can justify its running costs. Modular blockchain designs were promoted as a way for applications to combine specialized execution networks with separate layers for data availability, settlement, and security. In practice, the model can add operational complexity and recurring vendor expenses.

Base offers scale without chain maintenance

Sophon’s move to Base places it alongside a growing group of teams choosing to deploy applications on large existing networks rather than launch or retain their own chains. Base and Arbitrum have attracted applications partly because they offer established user bases, liquidity, developer tooling, and bridges to Ethereum.

For Sophon, that approach could remove the need to sustain validators, sequencing arrangements, indexing systems, analytics services, and other chain-specific operations. It also leaves the project competing directly for users within a crowded application ecosystem rather than controlling its own execution environment.

Other modular infrastructure providers, including Celestia, Avail, and EigenDA, continue to develop data availability technology designed to lower costs and increase throughput for blockchain networks. Yet the economics of launching and maintaining a general-purpose chain remain challenging when applications do not generate sustained fees or attract enough deposits to support the surrounding infrastructure.

Sophon’s Nov. 30 closure turns that broader debate into an immediate operational deadline. Users with assets or rewards on the network must complete the project’s specified withdrawal and claim procedures by Nov. 25, before the mainnet ceases operation.