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A chain is shutting down: how do I get my money out?

First find the official 'last day to withdraw' — it is often earlier than the shutdown date. Then go in order: exit your positions in apps on that chain and collect rewards, bridge out by the route the official guide names, and keep a little gas on both sides. After a deadline, some projects open an official recovery path and others say funds become inaccessible, so don't count on a second chance.

Last checked 2026-11-05

Step 1: get the dates right

Shutdown notices often carry two dates: the last day you can withdraw, and the day the chain actually stops. Act on the first one, and don't wait for the last day. Trust dates only from the official account and website, not from retellings.

Sophon: November 25 is the withdrawal deadline; key infrastructure and related websites begin shutting down after that, ahead of the final mainnet shutdown on November 30. In Sophon's words: 'Nov 25 is the date to act, not Nov 30.'
Abstract: the chain shuts down on December 15, 2026, and funds not bridged out by then will be inaccessible.
Horizen L3: the bridge cutoff (November 4, 13:00 UTC) was set one day before the hard shutdown, so the snapshot would be clean and nothing would be in flight when the chain stopped.

Step 2: exit positions and collect rewards before you bridge

Money sitting in staking, farms, liquidity pools or lending is not part of your wallet balance. Take it back to your wallet in the original app first; only then can you bridge it.

Horizen: withdraw your stake on the staking page first, then claim rewards, then bridge to Base.
Sophon: besides withdrawing SOPH, ETH, USDC and other assets, claim any outstanding staking or Guardian rewards, and withdraw anything still in the Sophon Farm.
Some positions are handled for you, so don't touch them on your own: Sophon says Guardian NFTs, vSOPH and staked SOPH move to Ethereum automatically. Read the official guide fully before you act.

Step 3: use the route the official guide names, and keep gas on both sides

The official guide usually spells out the route, how much gas to keep, and which tokens fall outside the official plan.

Use only the bridges or migration pages the official guide lists. For example, Abstract named its Migration Hub (migrate.abs.xyz) and native bridge (native-bridge.abs.xyz, which it says has about a 3-hour delay); Sophon points to claim.sophon.com.
Going back to Ethereum through an official native bridge usually involves a wait, and most chains need one more Claim on Ethereum. See 'Withdrawing from an L2 to Ethereum' for details.
Keep gas: leave a little of the native coin on the closing chain for fees, and a little ETH on Ethereum for the final step. Horizen told users short on gas to deposit a tiny amount of ETH from Base through the native bridge, only the minimum the bridge allows.
Tokens issued by someone else may fall outside the official plan: Horizen said USDC.e is operated by Stargate, not Horizen, so it was not covered by the DAO return and users had to bridge it out themselves.
Smart contract wallets and multisigs: check whether the project has a separate path or contact. Blast's recovery site lets the owner of a Safe or other smart wallet claim for it; Horizen asked smart-contract-wallet users to email its official security address before the deadline.

After the deadline: is there still a way?

It depends on the project. These are arrangements the projects themselves announced (checked 2026-11-05); they don't carry over to other chains.

Blast: the L2 shut down on November 4, 2026. The official recovery site, blast.io, stays open for 12 months, with a final support date of November 4, 2027. ETH, WETH and USDB held on Blast, plus withdrawals that never finished, are claimed on Ethereum mainnet. Blast Mobile users are told to import that wallet's seed phrase into a wallet app such as MetaMask or Rabby and connect it; type a seed phrase only into a wallet app, never into a website.
Lisk: the Lisk Chain shut down on November 2, 2026, and its portal and bridge are closed. Lisk says it is building a dedicated smart contract and plans a manual claims process in January 2027, with details to follow; withdrawals in progress at shutdown will be credited to their destination address on Ethereum. LSK on Ethereum or on exchanges is not affected.
Horizen L3: a snapshot was taken on November 4 at 13:00 UTC. After a one-week public review of the snapshot, the Horizen DAO will send remaining ZEN (including unclaimed staking rewards) and ETH balances above 0.001 ETH to the same address on Base, expected in the second half of November. ETH below 0.001 is not returned, and USDC.e is not covered.
Other projects say plainly that missing the deadline means losing access: Abstract says funds not bridged by the date will be inaccessible, and Sophon says assets left after the deadline risk becoming permanently inaccessible.
Any official fix is announced on the official account and website. If someone DMs you about a 'recovery channel', treat it as a scam.

The scams that show up around shutdowns

The closer the deadline, the more scammers. Projects themselves have publicly warned about each of these.

Fake migration sites: Sophon warned users to 'use only official Sophon links and be careful of fake migration sites'; Abstract warned about impersonation, fake migration sites and DMs claiming to represent Abstract.
'Support' DMs: Horizen says its team will never DM you first, will never ask for private keys or seed phrases, and will never ask you to send funds to them.
'Approve to unlock': an approval lets someone else move a token out of your wallet. MetaMask lists time pressure built around deadlines as a typical sign of a malicious approval request.
DeFiExit only asks your wallet to share its address — it never asks you to sign, approve or send anything, and we never message first.

Common questions

Do I have to move the tokens in my cold wallet?

It depends on which chain the tokens are on, not on the kind of wallet. A cold wallet just holds your keys; only assets on the chain that is closing need to come out. For example, Lisk said LSK on Ethereum or on exchanges was not affected by its chain shutdown, and Sophon says SOPH is native to Ethereum, so only the part on the Sophon Chain needs withdrawing. Check in your wallet or a block explorer which chain the balance is on.

The deadline has passed. Is my money gone?

Not necessarily, but don't count on it. Check the chain's official website and X account for post-shutdown arrangements: Blast opened a 12-month official recovery site, Lisk plans a claims process in January 2027, and the Horizen DAO is sending balances back on Base. Other projects say missing the deadline means losing access. Never trust a 'recovery channel' the project itself hasn't announced.

Do I need to 'verify my wallet' or pay a fee before I can migrate?

Paying someone first: no. Horizen says its team will never ask you to send funds to them; the only cost is the gas your own wallet pays to send a transaction. 'Verify your wallet': MetaMask says urgent messages asking you to follow a link to 'verify' your account are a common scam. If the official guide really does ask you to sign a confirmation, do it only on the page given in the official post, and read the wallet pop-up carefully.

I have no gas on the chain that is closing, so I can't bridge out.

Check the official guide first. Some chains stop deposits during a shutdown: Sophon disabled new deposits on June 25, 2026, while Horizen kept ETH deposits from Base open only so users could pay gas, and advised depositing the minimum. If the guide doesn't cover it, ask in the official Discord, not someone who privately offers to 'cover your gas'.

I already started on the official bridge. Why hasn't it arrived?

Official native bridges back to Ethereum involve a wait, and most also need one more Claim from you on Ethereum. Abstract, for example, says its native bridge has about a 3-hour delay, while OP Mainnet usually takes 7 days. See 'Withdrawing from an L2 to Ethereum' for details.