Daily Crypto Roundup: Blast Shuts Down, Bitcoin Drops Below $85K & $3.8M Hack Recovered

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Welcome back to the Daily Crypto Roundup. An Ethereum Layer 2 that once held more than $2 billion is shutting down because it costs more to run than it earns. Blast users now face a withdrawal pause and an October 26th interface deadline. That failure lands as community banks sue over federal crypto charters. Bitcoin gives back Friday's jobs data rally, and NEAR Intents recovers the full $3.8 million taken in its exploit.

At the time of recording, Bitcoin is around $84,798.

Down approximately 1.9% over 24 hours after trading between about $83,923 and $86,571.

Ethereum is near $2,679 and lower by roughly 2.1%.

XRP is close to $1.48 after losing about 3.3%, while BNB is around $774.75 and down approximately 0.7%.

Solana is near $119.23.

Hyperliquid is close to $88.37. Cardano is around $0.24 and Chainlink is near $13.85.

Cardano is the weakest of this group, down almost 4% and every asset in the snapshot is lower. Tell us whether a Layer 2 shutting down changes how you judge every smaller chain you use. New Kraken users who sign up using our link in the description can claim 20 XRP from Crypto News Today. Availability and eligibility vary by region. The 20 XRP is supplied by Crypto News Today, not Kraken. If you already use Kraken, please leave Crypto News Today a 5-star rating on Spotify and tell us what you want investigated next. This is not financial advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss. The lead story arrived late Friday after yesterday's recording cutoff. Blast is winding down its Ethereum Layer 2 because the network's continuing maintenance costs exceed the revenue it generates. The team said it sees no credible path to making the chain economically sustainable. Blast did not blame regulation, a hack or temporary market conditions. It admitted that the network's basic business model no longer works. Blast launched with $20 million from investors led by Paradigm and Standard Crypto. Its design promised native yield on Ether and stablecoin balances, and nearly 200,000 early users helped push value locked above $2 billion before the February 2024 Mainnet launch. The current decentralized finance total is only a little above $32 million.

That is a fall of roughly 98% from the pre-launch peak. Users are being asked to move all assets, including balances in the Blast Progressive Web application, back to Ethereum Mainnet. The process is not immediate. Blast will first withdraw assets held through Lido, which it expects to take approximately one week. Withdrawals will be unavailable during that period. After the Lido unwind, normal withdrawals should resume with a reduced 24-hour waiting period. October 26th is the important deadline. Until then, users should be able to withdraw through Blast's normal interface once the pause ends. After October 26th, Blast says assets will remain recoverable, but users will need to interact directly with bridge contracts on Ethereum. The team promises detailed instructions before the interface closes. What changed is the decision to end the chain. What did not change is ownership of assets inside the canonical bridge. October 26th is an interface cutoff, not a confiscation date. Direct contract interaction is harder, and every extra step creates room for phishing and expensive mistakes.

Users who leave safely benefit from a managed exit instead of an abrupt disappearance. Ethereum may regain liquidity.

Blast developers, token holders and applications lose the network they built around, while investors are left with a $20 million lesson in how quickly subsidized growth can evaporate. Cheap block space created many layer 2 networks, but not enough fees to support each one. This shutdown does not prove every smaller rollup will fail. It does prove that high-value locked during incentives is not durable demand. Would you keep funds on a chain after its operator says the economics no longer work? The orderly exit case fails if the Lido unwind slips, withdrawals do not reopen as described or bridge instructions prove unsafe. Watch Blast's status updates, the exact reopening time, the remaining bridge balance and the promised contract guide before October 26

Use only official links and never enter a seed phrase to withdraw.

The second story also arrived after Friday's cutoff. The independent Community Bankers of America sued the United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Court, arguing that the regulator exceeded its authority by smoothing a path for crypto companies to receive national trust bank charters. These are limited charters. They can let a company hold and manage assets for customers and settle payments nationally. They do not generally allow ordinary cash deposits or lending, and the digital assets are not protected by federal deposit insurance. The banking group's president, Rebecca Romero Rainey, said, American consumers reasonably expect a federally chartered bank to carry federal protections. Her argument is that the word bank can imply safeguards that a limited trust charter does not provide, while crypto firms gain national reach without every obligation imposed on a deposit-taking Community Bank.