🔀 The Great Blockchain Migration: Who’s Moving Where in 2026
Running your own blockchain is like owning a private airport: it’s expensive and complicated, and there aren’t many planes (users). So projects are increasingly selling their “airport” and moving to a major hub where the people and money already are.
Already moved 🚚
Moonriver → Base. The bridges shut down on July 31, 2026, and the Moonbeam chain was delisted on August 1. Tokens migrated at a 1:1 ratio
Extended → Arc. The perpetuals exchange switched its settlement network. The migration took place on October 22, with around $120 million moving to Arc, and trading never stopped. Starknet also lost its flagship project.
The move is approved and underway 📦
BounceBit → BNB Chain. This move was forced. A hacker exploited an authorization vulnerability and stole roughly $3 million in BB tokens, after which the project shut down its L1 and is moving to BNB Chain. By the time of the hack, most users and products were already available on BNB Chain.
ZetaChain → Solana. 99.4% of participants voted to shut down the L1. The project is betting on Anuma, a private AI app, and no longer needs its own blockchain.
Akash → Solana. The decentralized cloud for AI is leaving Cosmos. Proposal 346 received 97% of the votes, and the migration will take 24 months.
DATA Network → Sui. The move is backed by a $30 million investment from the Sui Foundation. The old chain will remain operational until the upgrade is complete.
Changing course 🔧
Gnosis Chain → Ethereum. It will go from being an independent L1 to a rollup that relies on Ethereum’s security. Validators will be disbanded, and around 350,000 staked GNO (about 27% of the circulating supply) will be unlocked.
Scroll → Ethereum. It is turning from a public network into a private AI network. The SCR token is moving to the Ethereum mainnet.
Still just proposals 🗳️
Harmony → Ethereum. It wants to shut down its L1 and move the ONE token to Ethereum. At the same time, the project has proposed a pivot to AI video.
What does this mean? The era of “every project has its own blockchain” is coming to an end. There’s also a clear trend: some projects are migrating as they pivot to AI. These include ZetaChain, Scroll, Akash, and Harmony.
This is not investment advice. Token prices can swing sharply and unpredictably after news like this.
