Acala and Karura propose shutdown referendums, with chains set to stop on February 10, 2027 Blockchain halt

AT A GLANCE

According to reports, Acala and Karura have proposed halting their chains on February 10, 2027. The referendum has not yet concluded, and asset withdrawal deadlines vary.

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Acala and Karura propose shutting down their chains on February 10, 2027, as most early Polkadot parachains face similar difficulties

BlockBeats reported that,November 11, the Acala team formally submitted on-chain governance proposal Referendum #195, proposing an orderly sunset of the Acala network on Polkadot. At the same time, its sister chain Karura on Kusama launched the corresponding Referendum #137. If both referendums pass, the chains will stop producing blocks on February 10, 2027, ending approximately 7 years of operation. In an open letter to the community, the team stated that DeFi liquidity in the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems had consistently lacked sufficient depth and was further fragmented by the multi-parachain structure. Operating costs had exceeded revenue, making continued operation unsustainable.

Under the proposal, if it passes, users must withdraw external assets themselves before February 10, 2027, including DOT、KSM and USDT、USDC bridged in from other chains, among others. Liquid staking products have earlier deadlines: users must begin unlocking validator-bonded LDOT before December 16, 2026, request unbonding of regular LDOT before January 12, 2027 before LKSM, and complete unbonding of February 2, 2027 before ACA. The native tokens KAR and RPC cannot be withdrawn across chains and will remain permanently on their respective chains. The team has committed to operating collators and

nodes and holding valid coretime until the deadline to keep withdrawal channels open. After the deadline, it will make a best effort to return remaining external assets to the corresponding addresses on Polkadot or Kusama Asset Hub, but does not guarantee full recovery. External assets in the treasuries are planned to be donated to the corresponding relay chain treasuries. The referendums are ongoing and are signaling votes; whether they are ultimately implemented depends on holders' wishes. Looking back at the winners of the first Polkadot parachain auctions in 2021—Acala, Moonbeam, Astar, Parallel Finance, and Clover—most have now effectively exited or stagnated. Moonbeam formally stopped producing blocks around July 31, 2026 and migrated its token GLMR to Base. Following a security incident, Parallel Finance gradually shut down its products on Polkadot and Kusama. Its on-chain infrastructure is no longer operating normally, and users must manually check their balances through a legacy interface. Clover has also pivoted or moved away from its original parachain identity. Among the first auction winners, Astar is now the main project still being actively maintained and receiving runtime upgrades.

Polkadot was created primarily to address the difficulty of achieving scalability, interoperability, and security simultaneously in the blockchain ecosystem at the time. Single chains such as Ethereum faced throughput bottlenecks, while cross-chain activity relied on centralized bridges or complex relays, making consistent security difficult to ensure. Over time, however, the high barriers to entry and capital lockups associated with the auction model, fragmented ecosystem liquidity, and intensifying external competition made it difficult for many parachains to build markets with sufficient depth. Polkadot has now shifted to the Agile Coretime model, selling blockspace more flexibly and advancing architectural upgrades such as JAM. However, the successive exits of early flagship projects have also prompted renewed scrutiny of the practical challenges facing this multichain vision.

Key points

According to BlockBeats, Acala submitted Referendum #195, and Karura launched Referendum #137. If the referendums pass, the chains plan to stop producing blocks on February 10, 2027.
The team's open letter said ecosystem DeFi liquidity was insufficient and fragmented by the multi-parachain structure, while operating costs had exceeded revenue.
If the proposals pass, users must withdraw February 10, 2027 before DOT、KSM, as well as USDT、USDC bridged in from other chains and other external assets.
Users must begin unlocking validator-bonded LDOT before December 16, 2026, and complete unbonding of regular LDOT before January 12, 2027 before LKSM before February 2, 2027 before the deadline.
The original article states that ACA and KAR cannot be withdrawn across chains and will remain permanently on their respective chains.
The team has committed to keeping withdrawal channels open until the deadline and making a best effort to return remaining external assets afterward, without guaranteeing full recovery.
The original article states that the referendums are ongoing and are signaling votes, with final implementation dependent on holders' wishes.

AI-assisted interpretation

The following is analysis, separate from reported facts. Verify important claims independently.

This is not a confirmed chain shutdown announcement, but a shutdown plan that is still being put to a vote. If implemented, users will need to distinguish between external assets and native tokens: the former are to be withdrawn according to the arrangements, while ACA and KAR are described as unable to be withdrawn across chains.LDOT、LKSM There are also unbonding deadlines before the chain shutdown date, so users should not focus solely on the final shutdown date.

Why it matters to readers

The report concerns the deadline for users to withdraw their assets and arrangements for handling overdue withdrawals, and explicitly states that the remaining external assets are not guaranteed to be returned in full.

If you hold relevant assets on both chains, pay particular attention to the asset types, their respective unbonding dates, and the final referendum result. Do not treat the proposal as a decision that has already been implemented, or interpret best-efforts returns as a guarantee of full reimbursement.

Risks and unknowns

The materials do not include the governance proposal page or voting results, and the relevant arrangements have not been independently verified.
Whether the shutdown will be implemented remains uncertain; the original text explicitly states that the referendum is still ongoing.
It remains uncertain how much of the overdue external assets can be returned; the original text does not guarantee a full return.

Acala and Karura propose shutdown referendums, with chains set to stop on February 10, 2027 Blockchain halt

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