Back in 2016, Lisk was crypto’s second-biggest crowd-funded project. Its LSK token reached a market cap of nearly $4 billion. Now, it’s leaving blockchain completely and becoming a business finance platform. What went wrong?
According to reports, a proposal will ask the Lisk DAO, the project’s governance body, to burn 100 million LSK tokens and dissolve itself.
Why Lisk is Walking Away From Its Own Chain
Lisk has retreated once before. Its 2016 crowdfunding raised more than 14,000 BTC, which was worth about $5.7 million. Only Ethereum’s 2014 sale had raised more at the time.
In December 2023, the team abandoned its original Layer-1 (L1) and rebuilt Lisk as an Ethereum Layer-2. The chain closing in October is that reboot, barely two years old.
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100 Million LSK Burn and the End of the DAO
The wind-down proposal, published on the Lisk Governance Forum, would burn 100 million LSK from the DAO treasury. Total supply would drop from 400 million to 300 million tokens, a 25% cut. Staking would also turn flexible, letting holders exit anytime after a three-day waiting period.
The token’s chart explains the urgency. LSK peaked at $34.92 in January 2018. It traded near $0.09 as of this writing, down more than 99% from that high, per BeInCrypto Markets.
The token set an all-time low of $0.07 on August 3, three weeks before this announcement.
Binance also flagged LSK for delisting risk in July by adding it to the exchange’s Monitoring Tag.
What the Lisk Blockchain Shutdown Means for Holders and Builders
Holders keeping LSK on Ethereum or on exchanges do not need to act. The contract and ticker stay the same. However, anyone holding or staking tokens on the Lisk Chain must bridge to Ethereum before October 31.
Bridging takes at least seven days, and unstaking adds a three-day wait once the vote passes.
Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer-2 network, will become LSK’s primary home alongside Ethereum. The token itself becomes a loyalty asset.
Businesses using the platform would earn rewards, eventually receivable in LSK and usable for fees.
Builders get a route out, with Lisk arranging a migration path to Celo with the Celo Core Co. team.
“The dapps, developers, and teams who built on the Lisk Chain shipped real products to real users. None of that is lost in this transition,” read an excerpt in the announcement.
Celo knows the road well, having completed its own move from independent L1 to Ethereum Layer-2 in March 2025.
The Lisk Chain stays supported until the closure date.
The DAO vote is the next checkpoint. If it passes, LSK stops tracking a blockchain and starts tracking a software business.
Source: BeInCrypto