Sophon is turning off the lights, and it wants everyone out of the building first. The entertainment-focused Layer 2 network has set November 25, 2026 as the final day for users to withdraw their assets. The mainnet itself is scheduled to shut down on November 30, 2026.
The gap between those two dates matters. Once the chain’s bridges and RPC nodes are retired, any assets still sitting on Sophon may become permanently inaccessible.
What users need to do before the cutoff
The shutdown follows a strategic rethink announced in June. Sophon’s developers concluded that running a standalone blockchain no longer paid for itself. The team cited operational costs of approximately $3.4 million annually.
New deposits were disabled on June 25, 2026. Activity on the chain has been minimal ever since.
Users have a short checklist before November 25. They need to withdraw any remaining assets from Sophon farms. They also need to claim outstanding staking rewards and Guardian rewards.
The shutdown is projected to save the project $3 million annually.
From blockchain operator to app builder
Sophon launched as a Layer 2 built on zkSync’s ZK Stack technology. Sophon’s pitch centered on entertainment. The project raised between $60 million and $70 million in funding along the way.
Now the team is moving its focus to consumer finance and AI applications on Base, Coinbase’s Layer 2 network. The first product from this new direction is Pyre, described as a gamified neofinance app.
What happens to the SOPH token
The SOPH token originally served two roles on the network: paying for gas and staking. With the chain going offline, both of those jobs disappear.
The new model ties SOPH to revenue from the team’s Base-based products. A portion of that revenue is set to fund token buybacks and burns. The total supply remains fixed at 10 billion.
SOPH currently trades between $0.0018 and $0.002. Its market capitalization sits between $9 million and $10 million. A project that raised between $60 million and $70 million now carries a market cap that is a fraction of that amount.
What this means for users, holders, and Layer 2s
For anyone with assets still on Sophon, the immediate stakes are simple. Withdraw before November 25, 2026, or risk losing access entirely. The five-day buffer before the November 30 shutdown is not a grace period to rely on.
The bigger story is what Sophon says about the economics of standalone chains. An annual bill of approximately $3.4 million is a lot to carry without a busy user base to justify it. Sophon’s move suggests that, for some teams, owning the infrastructure was the wrong layer to compete on. Building on an established network like Base trades sovereignty for distribution and lower overhead.
For now, the date to circle is November 25.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.