Blast Launched Mainnet, Unlocking $2.3B Staked Assets

Reported by Cointelegraph, around $400 million in Ether (ETH) has been taken out of the Ethereum layer-2 network Blast after the launch of its mainnet on Feb. 29 at 9:00 pm UTC — unlocking nearly $2.3 billion in staked crypto previously locked up on the network.

The optimistic rollup blockchain scaler gives users up to 5% annual percentage yield on Ether and stablecoins held on the network generated from staked ETH and United States Treasury Bills (T-Bills) managed by blockchain protocol and Dai stablecoin creator MakerDAO.

Crypto sent to the network was locked in before the mainnet launch, giving its 180,000 users no way to withdraw sent funds until now.

Blast’s total value locked (TVL) saw a high of $2.27 billion on Feb. 29, which has now fallen 17.5% to $1.87 billion after the launch with just under $400 million withdrawn, according to DeFiLlama data.

Airdrop hunters have flocked to the blockchain, farming it in hopes to be cut in on a Blast token the team has said is coming in May.