Closed DeFi Protocol: What Remains Recoverable

A closed DeFi protocol does not always take your funds with its site. Minterest turned off its interface on December 19, 2025, but its smart contracts remain active for refunds and withdrawals. Conversely, Immutable X imposed a migration: February 11, 2026 was the last day to withdraw your funds yourself.

Closed DeFi protocol: the site is not the contract

In decentralized finance, the website is often only the visible part. It prepares operations, displays your positions and helps you sign. The funds remain in smart contracts deployed on a blockchain.

When the site closes, these contracts can therefore continue to operate. A withdrawal then remains possible, even without a “Withdraw” button. It is still necessary that the function exists and that the project has not suspended the contract. Liquidity must also remain available.

Shutting down a blockchain poses another problem. If the chain itself stops, it is no longer enough to call a contract. There needs to be an organized migration, or an emergency exit provided by the bridge to Ethereum.

Minterest: withdraw without interface, if the liquidity follows

Minterest, a lending protocol present on Ethereum, Mantle, Taiko and Morph, announced its closure on November 19, 2025. Its interface closed on December 19 at 11:59 p.m. UTC. On December 31, support and core infrastructure, including its solvency engines, shut down.

Smart contracts remain active to allow users to directly refund and withdraw their assets.

Pinterest, announcement of November 19, 2025

The project thus publishes two direct interaction guides in its documentation. The first covers Ethereum and Mantle, the second Taiko and Morph. You must find the right network, the right contract and the right function yourself.

Its FAQ adds two caveats. First, interest continues to accrue on the contracts, even after the infrastructure is shut down. Waiting therefore costs a borrower money. Next, a withdrawal requires available cash. When the utilization rate approaches 100%, the withdrawal may therefore remain blocked due to a lack of free liquidity.

As of October 18, 2026, aggregator DefiLlama still recorded approximately $104,000 in value locked at Minterest, excluding loans. Nearly $20,400 remained borrowed.

The project further excludes any distribution for three groups: participants in its February 2022 public sale, its private investors and victims of its July 2024 hack. These victims had already received partial compensation in MINTY tokens. According to Pinterest, the 2022 sale was from a former company, which has been bankrupt since 2023.

Immutable X and Polygon zkEVM: when the blockchain stops

Immutable X, an Ethereum second-layer network dedicated to NFTs and video gaming, has taken a different path. February 11, 2026 was the last day to manually withdraw funds. Immutable then migrated the remaining funds to Immutable zkEVM from March 5 to 9, 2026, according to the GitHub repository of migration contracts.

Concretely, the migration is based on the final state of the chain and on cryptographic proofs of ownership. However, an operator designated by Immutable executes the payments. According to its documentation, the tokens joined the same wallet on the new chain. For NFTs, it all depends on the game: many projects have planned their own procedure.

Two exceptions show the limits of automatic migration. First, withdrawals launched no later than February 11, without finalization on Ethereum, remain separate. Their holders must call the bridge’s withdrawal function themselves, according to a dedicated procedure published on the same repository. According to the Immutable filing, this function does not apply to NFTs. Then, a bug in the VCO token prevented the migration of the assets of 7 holders, who remained on the bridge. A new version of the contract, deployed in April 2026, allows them to withdraw them themselves on Ethereum.

Polygon has chosen a third method for Polygon zkEVM, stopped on July 3, 2026. Holders of a classic wallet recover their funds on Ethereum. They go through a Polygon zkEVM claim interfacewhich Polygon announced open until December 31, 2027. On the other hand, funds blocked in a DeFi application do not go through this route. Polygon refers these users to the operator of each application.

Blast and Abstract: two closures, two rules

In 2026, two other blockchains announced their closure, with very different rules. Blast did so on October 2, 2026, as Tremplin.io recalled when Blur left. According to this announcement relayed by the press, withdrawals through the usual interface remained possible until October 26, 2026. Blast also promised instructions to then withdraw directly via its contracts on Ethereum.

For its part, Abstract, developed by Igloo, the company behind Pudgy Penguins, is more strict. Its official migration page set the shutdown for December 15, 2026. It warns that users who do not migrate their assets before this date will lose access to their funds.

Closed DeFi protocol: four questions before seeking your funds

Before considering an asset as lost or recoverable, ask yourself four questions.

• Where is the asset located? In your wallet, in a loan pool, in a bridge or on a blockchain that closes.
• What operation was in progress? A deposit, a loan or a withdrawal initiated but not finalized follow different paths.
• Which function remains available? An explorer page that shows a balance does not prove that you can withdraw it.
• What resources remain? Liquidity, network fees and project operators determine the success of a withdrawal.

In the European Union, fully decentralized services also escape the MiCA regulation, recall the European supervisory authorities in a common sheet on crypto-assets. The protections provided for by this text therefore do not apply there.

Closed DeFi Protocol: Beware of Fake Sites

Finally, a closed DeFi protocol attracts scammers. Without an official interface, a fake “recovery” site can easily pose as the project. Immutable warns that any site that asks to sign its Immutable X key message is attempting phishing.

The FBI also reminds that a private recovery company cannot order the seizure of cryptocurrencies. So never transmit your recovery phrase to obtain a withdrawal. Check each contract address in the official project documentation.

Among the deadlines announced in these files, that of Polygon is the furthest away. According to its official page, its complaints interface for Polygon zkEVM must remain open until December 31, 2027. Elsewhere, it all depends on the functions that the contracts leave open, as explained in our guide on how smart contracts work.