Sophon Shuts Down Mainnet and Warns Users to Withdraw Before November 25
Users need to withdraw SOPH, ETH, and USDC before November 25; after that, Sophon will wind down its infrastructure and funds could become unreachable.
Key Takeaways
- Sophon will shut down its mainnet on November 30, 2026, and is giving users until November 25 to withdraw their funds.
- After November 25, Sophon will start winding down infrastructure, bridges, and RPC nodes; assets left behind could become permanently inaccessible.
- Sophon is ending as a standalone entertainment L2 and shifting its focus to Base, while SOPH gets a new role tied to revenue from Base products.
Sophon will shut down its mainnet on November 30, 2026, and is giving users until November 25 to withdraw their funds. Anyone who leaves SOPH, ETH, USDC, or other assets on the chain after that risks having them become permanently inaccessible, according to the project. The team calls this a clear warning and says the safest move is to remove everything before the deadline.
What Users Need to Do Now
Sophon is asking users not only to withdraw their tokens, but also any outstanding staking- and Guardian rewards, as well as positions in Sophon farms. Starting November 25, the project will begin winding down infrastructure, bridges, and RPC nodes. New deposits had already been impossible since June 25, 2026, which means activity on the chain had already dropped sharply for some time.
For anyone still holding assets on Sophon, the message is simple: check your Wallet and move everything out on time. The project stresses that funds left behind after the deadline may not be recoverable.
The End of an Entertainment L2
Sophon was a zero-knowledge layer-2 on zkSync's ZK Stack, with a focus on gaming and entertainment. In June, the team decided to walk away from the standalone chain because the costs no longer outweighed the benefits. According to the project, that came to about $3.4 million (€3 million) in annual operating costs, while the shutdown is expected to save more than $3 million (€2.7 million) per year.
The project is now shifting its attention to Base, Coinbase's layer-2, with consumer finance and AI applications as its new direction. The first product in that line is called Pyre. For SOPH holders, a lot will also change after November 30: the token will lose its role as a gas and staking token and will be turned into a token tied to revenue from the new Base products. That shift fits into the broader move at Base, which had already stepped away from its content coin experiments.
More Pressure on L2 Projects
The shutdown fits into a broader trend in which several Ethereum Layer-2 networks stopped or changed direction in 2026 after financial problems and low user activity. Abstract also announced in October that it would shut down, after the network showed too little growth and limited institutional adoption, according to the team. For European crypto followers, that shows not every L2 project will automatically survive, especially when activity dries up and costs keep running.
