Acala and Karura plan to shut down on Feb. 10, 2027

The Acala team announced on Nov. 9 that it plans to shut down the Acala DeFi chain on Polkadot and its sister network Karura on Kusama. Block production is set to stop on Feb. 10, 2027, but both communities must approve the move: votes are running as Acala referendum #195 and Karura referendum #137.

Details

According to ForkLog, the developers cite a lack of DeFi liquidity and its dispersion across numerous parachains. Crypto Briefing reports the same.

Users must withdraw external assets, including DOT, KSM, USDT and USDC bridged to the chains, before the shutdown. Liquid staking positions have earlier deadlines:

• LDOT locked with validators must be unlocked by Dec. 16, 2026;
• LDOT unbonding requests must be submitted by Jan. 12, 2027;
• LKSM unbonding requests must be submitted by Feb. 2, 2027.

The native ACA and KAR tokens cannot be withdrawn and will remain on their chains. PANews notes that the referendum schedule and an asset migration plan have not been disclosed yet.

What this means for the market

The shutdown does not affect the main Polkadot and Kusama networks, but it shows how liquidity fragmented across parachains can squeeze individual DeFi projects. Per Crypto Briefing, Acala has already been through a token minting exploit in 2022, Wormhole dropping support in 2025 and a Binance delisting of ACA in February 2026.

ACA and KAR holders should watch the referendum outcomes and team announcements. For live Polkadot data see the coin page; for the wider market, the daily brief.