Acala, Karura Governance Votes Open on Plan to Halt Networks Feb 10, 2027

Referenda 195 and 137

The governance seats of Acala and Karura now hold a decision whose scope covers every external asset on both chains: whether the two DeFi networks stop producing blocks on Feb 10, 2027. The Acala development team published the shutdown proposal on Monday, Nov 9, and both chains opened their referenda the same day, asking holders a single question: approval or rejection of the plan. The vote record gives each proposal its standing: Acala carries the matter as referendum 195, Karura as referendum 137, and neither count is closed yet.

Both networks are parachains, chains that plug into a relay chain for shared security. Acala connects to the Polkadot relay chain; Karura connects to Kusama, the canary network where changes meant for Polkadot are tested under live conditions first. Kusama runs as an independent chain with its own asset, KSM. The mandate the team offers for winding down is arithmetic rather than performance. Liquidity and users, the proposal states, have spread across many chains in the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems, and the liquidity pools a DeFi platform needs never formed in enough depth. Under that usage, operating dedicated chains costs more than they bring in.

The plan sets one halt date, Feb 10, 2027, and attaches a condition to it. Passage of the referenda does not by itself stop the mainnets from producing blocks; each chain must pass separate governance procedures after the vote before the halt takes effect. The team asks users to move external assets off both networks before that date. Assets in scope include DOT, the token of Polkadot, KSM, and the dollar stablecoins USDT and USDC transferred in from other chains. Through the withdrawal window the team keeps the equipment for block production and network connection running, so external withdrawals and cross-chain transfers stay available until the end.

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LDOT and LKSM Deadlines Set

Assets still on the networks when the halt arrives follow a fallback the proposal defines in advance. The team will attempt to return unclaimed external assets to the same account on each chain's Asset Hub, the balances chain of each ecosystem: Polkadot Asset Hub for Acala, Kusama Asset Hub for Karura. That promise carries a stated limit: the proposal says not every asset can necessarily be returned, and it does not commit to a recovery rate. USDT and USDC moved in from other chains count as external assets and follow the same return route as DOT and KSM.

Liquid staking positions carry the tightest clocks. LDOT, the liquid staking token for DOT on Acala, tracks staked DOT while keeping it tradable, and must be redeemed back into DOT before Jan 12, 2027; the redemption waiting period runs 28 days. Positions locked for a specific validator need an additional 28 days to release, so the team asks those holders to start the unlocking procedure before Dec 16, 2026. On Karura the schedule is shorter: LKSM holders have until Feb 2, 2027 to request redemption into KSM, with a waiting period of 7 days.

Two tokens sit outside the process entirely. ACA and KAR, the native governance tokens of each network, are not subject to withdrawal or return. The team plans to preserve the final state of each chain at the halt, leaving ACA recorded on Acala and KAR recorded on Karura. Treasury holdings follow a separate route: external assets held by the Acala treasury are donated to the Polkadot treasury, and Karura's treasury assets go to the Kusama treasury. For users, the sequence is therefore redeem or withdraw first, and rely on the Asset Hub return only for whatever remains.

What the Vote Cannot Settle

The vote record itself stays open: referenda 195 and 137 have no recorded outcome yet, so every date above is a plan, not a decision. The seats hold authority over whether the chains wind down, but the proposals reserve the mechanics to separate governance steps on each chain after the vote; a yes settles direction, not execution. The boundary the team draws is narrower than a full guarantee: unclaimed assets return to Asset Hub accounts on a best-effort basis, and the proposal states plainly that not all assets can necessarily be recovered. One date no vote can move is Dec 16, 2026, the deadline to start unlocking validator-locked LDOT before the redemption window closes.