Sophon Chain has set a final timeline for winding down its standalone Ethereum Layer 2 network, announcing that the mainnet will permanently shut down on Nov. 30, 2026. The announcement was released to token holders and users on Oct. 20.
Users have been advised to treat Nov. 25, 2026, as the hard deadline for all asset withdrawals. Key network infrastructure and associated websites will begin shutting down immediately after that date. The Sophon team warned that any funds remaining on the chain after the deadline risk becoming permanently inaccessible once key services, bridges, and RPC nodes go dark.
Urgent Action Required for Asset Holders
In a post on X, the Sophon team instructed users to withdraw liquid SOPH, ETH, USDC, and other assets using the official claim portal at claim.sophon.com. Users were also told to claim any outstanding staking or Guardian rewards and to withdraw unclaimed Sophon farm assets from farm.sophon.xyz.
The team emphasized that users must not leave withdrawals until the last day to prevent potential congestion or technical complications. Holders were warned to strictly use official links and to beware of fraudulent migration websites attempting phishing scams.
Pivot Driven by High Operating Costs
The final shutdown follows a strategic rethink first announced in mid-2026. Sophon originally launched as an entertainment- and lifestyle-focused Layer 2 network powered by Matter Labs’ Zksync ZK Stack. During its initial expansion phases in 2024, Sophon attracted widespread market attention and institutional backing.
The project raised approximately $70 million in funding. This included a $10 million seed round led by Paper Ventures and Maven 11, over $60 million from a node sale in April 2024, and subsequent strategic backing from Binance Labs.
Despite its capital foundation, the team concluded earlier this year that maintaining a standalone Layer 2 infrastructure was economically unfeasible, citing annual operational overhead exceeding $3 million.
As part of a broader shift across the decentralized ecosystem, Sophon opted to sunset its dedicated chain and pivot toward developing consumer applications on the Coinbase-backed Base network. Revenues from these new applications are earmarked for SOPH token buyback and burn models.
The price of SOPH has plunged in recent months, hitting a fresh all-time low of $0.001623 on Tuesday following the announcement. SOPH now sits more than 98% below its peak price above $0.11 set in May 2025.
