Acala and Karura plan permanent shutdown on February 10, 2027, pending referendums

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The Polkadot and Kusama DeFi hubs will close for good if two governance referendums pass, and users have hard deadlines to move their assets

Mon 9 Nov 2026 · 07:36 EST · 3 min read

In Crypto

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Acala is preparing to turn off the lights. The team plans to permanently shut down both the Acala parachain on Polkadot and its sister network Karura on Kusama on February 10, 2027.

The decision is not final yet. It depends on two on-chain governance referendums passing, which means token holders get the last word on whether these chains live or die.

What the shutdown plan involves

Acala Network announced the plan on November 9, 2026. The closure depends on approval of Acala Referendum #195 and Karura Referendum #137.

Users holding external assets on either chain must withdraw them before the deadline. That covers DOT, KSM, and bridged stablecoins such as USDT and USDC.

The native tokens are a different story. ACA and KAR cannot be withdrawn and will stay on their respective chains, so those tokens have nowhere to go once the networks stop running.

There are also earlier deadlines for liquid staking positions. Users must unbond LDOT by January 12, 2027, and LKSM by February 2, 2027.

Unbonding is the process of pulling staked tokens out of a staking arrangement so they can be moved again. It takes time, which is why those cutoffs land weeks ahead of the shutdown itself.

The foundation has published a detailed withdrawal guide to walk users through the process. The emphasis is clear: users are expected to retrieve their own funds rather than count on some recovery mechanism after the chains close.

How Acala got here

The planned closure would end nearly seven years of development led by the Acala Foundation. Its founders include Bryan, Ruitao, and Bette.

Karura launched on Kusama in June 2021. It was built as a DeFi hub for the Acala ecosystem, offering liquid staking, a decentralized exchange, and stablecoin functionality.

In 2022, a significant minting exploit hit the networks. The incident led to intervention and paused services.

Wormhole bridge support was discontinued in 2025, cutting off one route for moving assets between Acala and other blockchains.

Then in February 2026, Binance delisted ACA.

What this means for users and the ecosystem

Three dates matter: January 12 for LDOT, February 2 for LKSM, and February 10 for everything else. Anyone holding liquid staking positions has the least room to wait, since unbonding must start well before the final shutdown.

ACA and KAR holders face a tougher situation. Because those tokens cannot leave their home chains, the shutdown effectively traps them on networks that will no longer operate.

The referendums add a layer of uncertainty. A vote is still a vote, and the plan formally hinges on approval.

There is also a governance angle worth noting. Using on-chain referendums to approve a shutdown gives the community formal input instead of leaving users to discover that validators simply stopped showing up.

The approach also shifts responsibility onto users. By stressing self-service withdrawals over a post-shutdown recovery framework, the foundation is signaling that funds left behind after February 10 may be difficult or impossible to reclaim.

What to watch next: the outcomes of Acala Referendum #195 and Karura Referendum #137, how much value remains locked on both chains as the deadlines approach, and whether Polkadot ecosystem projects step in to absorb users who relied on Acala’s services.

Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.