Shiba Inu: who actually pays for Shibarium

If you hold Shiba Inu, there is no reason to act in haste today. The most important news of this weekend is still one worth working through once: on Friday, October 2, 2026, the Ethereum chain Blast announced that it is shutting down operations. The reasoning applies to every second layer in the Ethereum orbit, because the arithmetic is the same. On the same day, a developer at Shiba Inu answered the question of who actually settles the bill for Shibarium in two words. Taken together, the two events add up to a concrete task for you, and it has nothing to do with the chart. It has to do with which chain your tokens actually sit on.

The short answer first: your SHIB holdings are very probably not on Shibarium at all, but on Ethereum or with an exchange. In that case nothing changes for you today. Anyone who sent tokens across the Shibarium bridge over the past months in order to swap or play there has an open position on a chain whose funding currently rests publicly on one individual. That position is the one to look at today.

What happened on October 2: Blast winds down, a developer pays for Shibarium

In 2024 Blast was one of the largest second layers in the Ethereum orbit. According to Friday's statement, assets held on the chain have fallen 98 percent from a peak of around $2.2 billion in June 2024. The team writes that the economics of running the chain no longer make sense, that running costs exceed revenue, and that it sees no credible path to a sustainable operation. Users can still withdraw their funds through the familiar interface until October 26, 2026. After that the bridge contract on Ethereum remains the only route, which works technically but demands considerably more work of your own. The details are at CoinDesk, October 2.