Overview
- Router announced it will cease all operations by Sept. 30, 2026 and permanently burn 303,333,198 ROUTE tokens, equal to roughly 30% of the near 1 billion supply.
- The team cited thin bridging economics — low fees from competitive routing against always-on costs like relayers, validators and monitoring — as the main reason for the closure.
- Router disclosed two 2025 security incidents, recovering about 80% of funds from a February exploit but not the losses from a separate July chain-level breach, which worsened financial strain.
- Markets reacted sharply after the announcement, with ROUTE falling roughly 50% to an all-time low and exchanges such as KuCoin suspending deposits while they set delisting and withdrawal timetables.
- The team will open-source selected components, will not start new token programs, and urged holders and developers to migrate assets before relayer shutdowns during the wind-down period.