Acala Shutdown Set For Feb 10, 2027 As Karura Follows

The Acala shutdown now has a date. Acala on Polkadot and its sister chain Karura on Kusama plan to stop producing blocks on February 10, 2027, if two on-chain votes pass. The team announced the plan on November 9 in a letter on X, and the votes were set for the same day.

The two votes are Acala Referendum #195 and Karura Referendum #137. Holders of ACA and KAR cast the votes. The Acala shutdown and its Karura twin go ahead only if both pass.

The letter as published on X by the Acala account. Source: Acala on X, Sunsetting Acala and Karura.

Users have a to-do list, and the order matters. External assets such as DOT, KSM and bridged USDT or USDC must leave both chains before February 10. The native tokens ACA and KAR cannot be withdrawn and stay where they are.

Acala Shutdown Deadlines Start On December 16

Unbonding is the slow part. Liquid DOT, called LDOT, takes 28 days to unbond, so a request must start by January 12, 2027. If the LDOT is locked to a validator, it needs another 28 days to unlock first, which pulls that deadline back to December 16, 2026.

Liquid KSM, called LKSM, is quicker. It takes seven days, and its last unbonding date is February 2, 2027. Anyone with an aUSD or aSEED loan must repay it first to free the collateral. Liquidity providers must remove their positions before they can withdraw.

After the final block, the team will try to send leftover external assets to the same account on Asset Hub, on Polkadot or Kusama. It adds that not every asset can be returned this way. External assets held by the two treasuries will be donated to the Polkadot and Kusama treasuries.

What The Chain Data Says About Size

The numbers explain the decision. DefiLlama lists Acala chain TVL at about $257,000 on November 9. Its peak was $113.9 million on August 14, 2022, the same month as the aUSD minting error described in the letter. Karura stands near $44,200 today, against a peak of $79.7 million on October 30, 2021.

CoinGecko shows ACA near $0.000227 with a market value of about $265,000. KAR sits near $0.000226 with roughly $26,000. Those are the tokens the team says will stay on the stopped chains.

The letter gives its own reasons. It says both networks have been in maintenance mode with no significant protocol upgrade.

It also blames Polkadot's many parachains. Liquidity got scattered. So did users. Lending, stablecoins and liquid staking all need deep markets, and the letter says those never showed up. So the team picked a wind-down now, while the bridges and routes out still run.

Acala won the first parachain auction on Polkadot, and Karura won the first on Kusama, according to the same letter. It built the aUSD stablecoin, liquid staking and a DEX into the chain itself. Our earlier piece on the DOT DAO strategy mandate vote shows how Polkadot governance handles money decisions.

The team warns about fake help. It says to use only links from acala.network and the official @AcalaNetwork and @KaruraNetwork accounts. Staff will never message first or ask for private keys.

Anyone planning around the Acala shutdown should start with validator-locked LDOT, since that deadline comes first. Prices and totals here were checked on November 9 and will move. This is reporting, not investment advice.