Acala Referendum 195 "Sunset the Acala Network" vote ends
Voting on Acala Referendum 195, "Sunset the Acala Network", is due to close around November 14, 2026. The signal vote concerns the planned shutdown of the Acala parachain and touches ACA, DOT and LDOT.
What is happening
The Acala team submitted Referendum 195 on November 9, 2026. It is a signal referendum: it does not change the network's code but gives the team a mandate, and the technical steps follow later through further governance votes. A simple majority decides. Based on the end block in the proposal and a twelve-second block time, the vote closes around mid-morning on November 14. By the time of the latest reports, only Aye votes had been cast.
An Aye vote approves three points: a shutdown plan with an exit window until February 10, 2027, after which block production stops; the return of external assets still on Acala on the cut-off date to the same address on the Polkadot Asset Hub, on a best-effort basis and without a guarantee for every token; and the donation of the Acala treasury's external holdings to the Polkadot treasury. A parallel vote, Referendum 137, covers the sister chain Karura on Kusama.
The team explains that the liquidity Acala needed never arrived and that usage no longer covers the cost of running its own blockchain. DefiLlama figures cited in the sources show roughly $249,000 in applications on Acala in November 2026, against about $110.6 million in August 2022.
Why it matters
Anyone holding DOT, LDOT or stablecoins on Acala needs to withdraw them before the shutdown. The tightest deadline applies to LDOT, the liquid staking token for DOT. Because Polkadot unbonding takes 28 days, LDOT bound to specific validators must be released by December 16, 2026, and ordinary LDOT must begin unbonding before January 12, 2027. The Karura counterpart, LKSM, has a deadline of February 2, 2027. The team itself notes that not every external asset can be returned to the Asset Hub.
The network's own token, ACA, cannot be withdrawn and stays in the frozen final state of the chain, so holders on centralised exchanges may want to watch for delisting announcements. For the wider Polkadot ecosystem, the shutdown of its largest DeFi parachain is a notable development, although the sources suggest the immediate effect on DOT trading is limited. Tax treatment of unbonding or swapping LDOT may be unclear in some jurisdictions, so keeping records of each step is advisable.
Key details
- Date: November 14, 2026 (calculated from the end block; exact time may vary)
- Project: Acala
- Coins: ACA, DOT, LDOT
- Category: Governance vote
- Status: Confirmed
- Source: cryptoticker.io, "Polkadot Acala shutdown: LDOT deadline"