Aurora, the Ethereum-compatible layer built on NEAR Protocol, lost mainnet access early Monday. The network stopped processing transactions at 2:16:11 a.m. UTC on July 20 and remains offline as of this writing, according to on-chain monitoring platform Onchain Lens.
The outage hits a chain that was once a top destination for Ethereum developers looking for lower fees. Aurora launched in 2021 with a $12 million funding round from Pantera Capital, Electric Capital and Dragonfly Capital. Its pitch was straightforward: run any Ethereum smart contract at a fraction of the cost, with the security of NEAR’s sharded architecture.
But the user exodus has been brutal. DefiLlama data shows Aurora’s total value locked peaked at roughly $2.5 billion in early 2022. Today that figure has collapsed more than 99% to about $4.65 million. The chain’s native token, AURORA, has also plunged in tandem, though price data was disrupted by the outage.
No official cause for the halt has been released. Aurora’s team has not posted a public statement on social media or its website. Engineers are presumably investigating, but the silence is notable for a network that once handled millions in cross-chain bridge volume.
The timing is awkward. The broader crypto market has been clawing back from a mid-year slump, with Ethereum itself showing signs of activity recovery. A chain promising “Ethereum at NEAR speeds” failing to stay live undermines the reliability narrative that layer-2 and compatible-layer projects depend on.
For traders holding positions bridged into Aurora – or projects that built on top of it – the immediate risk is uncertainty. No withdrawals, no settlement, no clear ETA. The network’s bridge back to NEAR is also impacted, meaning funds cannot move out.
Watch for an official post-mortem from Aurora’s team. Until then, the chain is essentially frozen. The TVL numbers already told a grim story; the outage just wrote the headline.
Aurora blockchain goes offline as deposits plunge over 99% from peak
Aurora, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain built on NEAR, stopped processing transactions early Monday and remains offline, with no official cause announced. The outage hits a network whose deposits fell from about $2.5 billion in early 2022 to roughly $4.65 million, while its AURORA cryptocurrency also plunged.