Veteran public chain ICON announces permanent network shutdown on 12/31: transitioning to cross-chain infrastructure SODA X, urges users to migrate $ICX to $SODA as soon as possible

9-year veteran public chain officially ends! The ICON Foundation made a stunning announcement today (the 25th), declaring that it will permanently shut down the ICON network on December 31, 2026, and will concentrate all resources on developing the next-generation cross-chain infrastructure SODA X. Officials are urging all $ICX token holders to complete migration to the new $SODA token before the year-end deadline, or their assets may become void; additionally, starting September 30, the two-way bridge will be closed, supporting only one-way conversion. (Background: Another NFT platform shuts down: Foundation announces official closure) (Background context: Magic Eden wallet forced shutdown on 5/1: Users have limited time to export private keys, or assets will permanently disappear) ICON, the veteran public chain that dominated the 2017 ICO frenzy and was hailed by the community as "Korea's Ethereum," is about to officially enter the history books. The ICON Foundation issued a major announcement today (May 25, 2026), confirming that the ICON network will permanently shut down on December 31, 2026. At that time, all on-chain transactions will completely cease, and the network will transition to "Read-only" mode, available only for users to query historical transactions. This marks the official end of a 9-year Layer 1 era. Why self-terminate the mainnet? Going all-in on cross-chain infrastructure SODA X The ICON team candidly stated in the announcement that when they were founded in 2017, the blockchain industry severely lacked cross-chain settlement infrastructure, which is why they built their own Layer 1 mainnet. However, nine years later, the industry's bottleneck is no longer "settlement," but rather "liquidity, user experience, and execution efficiency." To adapt to modern demands, the team underwent a brand overhaul over the past year, completely transforming into SODA X. This is a cross-chain execution layer and liquidity system based on Intent and Solver technology, currently capable of successfully coordinating transactions across more than 18 blockchain networks. Officials stated: "Continuing to maintain a Layer 1 that no longer aligns with our mission would only fragment resources and funds. Shutting down the ICON network is the final step in completing our transformation. We will channel all resources into the SODA X products that are genuinely being adopted by users and developers." Migration deadline countdown: Switching to "one-way conversion" starting September Alongside the mainnet shutdown, the native token $ICX will also be fully converted to the new token $SODA. Officials have announced a time-pressured complete exit timeline: - May 2026: Initiate a governance vote for node validators to formally approve the network shutdown plan at the end of December. - September 30, 2026: Close the two-way token migration bridge; thereafter only one-way conversion from ICX to SODA will be supported. - December 31, 2026: Final deadline for token migration. After this date, $ICX can no longer be migrated. Operational recommendations for users: For users storing ICX in "self-custody wallets," they must go to SODA Exchange to complete migration before year-end, and need to prepare a small amount of $S on the Sonic network as Gas fees; users storing ICX on "centralized exchanges (CEX)" need not take any action, as exchanges will successively announce and automatically execute token conversion plans during the summer this year (currently the well-known exchange Kraken has already added SODA to its listing roadmap). ICON's exit is not an end, but rather a decisive transformation made by a veteran project to survive. With the launch of SODA X SDK v2 and support for AI agent development, this team with 9 years of foundation is attempting to reclaim its dominant position in the highly competitive cross-chain and chain abstraction arena.