TLDR
ShadeSwap trading resumes Friday, July 10 @ 6:00 PM GMT+0 — SILK state is essentially unfrozen as trading for SILK will resume at the same time, allowing users to wind down and exit positions. Use this window to exit everything.
The SHD → Feather ($FTR) burn deadline has moved up to August 5, 2026 (previously October 15). The burn contract closes permanently on that date.
Why: SCRT Labs is migrating $SCRT to Arbitrum and dropping official Cosmos L1 support on September 1, 2026. Any tokens left inside smart contracts at their September snapshot will be more than likely permanently lost.
What to do today: Begin unstaking SHD (7-day unbond) and stkd-SCRT (21-day unbond) immediately. On Friday, withdraw all LP positions, close SILK/ShadeX lend positions, and unwrap all SNIP-20 assets back to native form.
Final step: Once liquid, burn your SHD via the official burn contract ( Shade App ) with your verified EVM address before August 5 to qualify for the $FTR allocation. This is one-way and irreversible.
Axelar exploit update: Proposal #490 (freeze hacker funds) passed July 5 with 99.98% YES — encouraging, but non-binding. Remediation will follow its own track; Shade can’t stay frozen waiting for it.
Dear Community,
The digital asset landscape moves fast, and the past 48 hours have fundamentally altered the timeline for the Cosmos ecosystem. Following the announcement from SCRT Labs regarding the complete migration of the $SCRT token to Arbitrum and the cessation of official Cosmos L1 support on September 1, 2026, the Shade team has been working around the clock to evaluate what this means for our community, our infrastructure, and the safety of user funds.
Our primary mandate is protecting the continuity of what we are building with Feather, while providing a clear, pragmatic path out of the legacy Shade ecosystem.
To achieve this, we are announcing three critical updates:
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The resumption of trading on ShadeSwap this Friday, July 10, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. GMT+0.
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The unfreezing of SILK state (ability to acquire SILK to repay loans) due to compressed Secret Network timelines.
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The acceleration of the final SHD to Feather ($FTR) snapshot deadline to August 5, 2026.
Below, we break down exactly why these choices were made, how they mitigate systemic risk, and the immediate steps you must take to secure your assets.
1. Resuming ShadeSwap Trading (Friday, July 10th @ 6:00 p.m. GMT+0)
In our previous communications, we noted that Shade Protocol applications would enter a wind down maintenance mode. However, given that users need to urgently exit liquidity pools, settle lending positions, and convert privacy wrapped tokens back to native assets before the September base layer migration, leaving the community stranded without internal liquidity is not an option.
Effective Friday, July 10, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. GMT+0, trading on ShadeSwap will officially resume.
Why We Are Reopening the Swap
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Orderly Off Ramping: Users currently sitting in cross-margin lend positions, yield strategies, or isolated liquidity pairs require a functional AMM interface to cleanly unwind their positions.
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Unwrapping & Liquidation: With the base layer fundamentally shifting, standard sSCRT, SNIP-20, and other privacy-wrapped tokens must be converted back to native assets. ShadeSwap will serve as the primary clearinghouse for users to execute these transactions safely.
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Fair Price Discovery: Reopening the pools ensures that remaining holders can trade out of non-native assets at market-determined rates rather than facing permanent capital locking.
Crucial Warning: Do not leave assets sitting inside ShadeSwap liquidity pools or smart contracts. As explicitly detailed in the SCRT Labs migration brief, any tokens held inside contracts at the time of their September snapshot will be permanently lost. Use the reopening of ShadeSwap to clean up your portfolio immediately.
THE “EXIT EVERYTHING” MANDATE
Do not leave capital sitting inside any Shade Protocol feature, smart contract, or pool. As explicitly detailed in the SCRT Labs migration brief, any tokens held inside contracts at the time of their September snapshot will be permanently lost.
When ShadeSwap reopens this Friday, you must immediately begin to close out EVERYTHING:
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ShadeSwap LP Positions: Withdraw 100% of your liquidity from all pairs.
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SILK Lend Positions: Repay outstanding SILK debts, close your collateralized positions, and withdraw your assets.
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ShadeX Positions: Close out any open lending, borrowing, or collaterals.
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Staking & Derivatives: Begin the unstaking process for SHD (7 days) and stkd-SCRT (21 days) immediately.
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Wrapped IBC Assets: Unwrap all privacy-wrapped tokens (sSCRT, sATOM, sUSDC, sINJ, etc.) back to their native, public forms and bridge them out of the network.
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Enter into the SHD<>FTR burn contract as soon as possible to be included in the snapshot
2. Axelar Remediation & The Reality of the SILK Freeze
Up until now, the ShadeDAO has kept the state of SILK and the Shade app frozen following the $4M Axelar–Secret IBC bridge exploit in June. We were intentionally waiting for definitive clarity on asset recovery and remediation paths from our infrastructure partners.
We are incredibly encouraged by the recent passage of Axelar’s Signaling Proposal #490: Freeze Hacker Funds and Recustody to a Trusted Distributor, which passed on July 5th with a staggering 99.98% “YES” vote. This successful vote establishes a clear, formal community mandate to permanently freeze the attacker’s wallet (axelar1hzra9z4zn8q0w8f3dj2wnw0xgetu8dfdhl6ad8) and prepare a transparent framework to return recovered assets to affected users.
However, we must pair our optimism with hard engineering candor: Proposal #490 is a non-binding text proposal. It carries no automatic onchain actions, and the subsequent binding follow up proposals required to name a distributor and finalize the redistribution mechanics will take time to vet and deploy.
With Secret Network dropping official L1 support on September 1st, Shade no longer has the luxury of time to keep SILK and ShadeSwap frozen.
The ShadeDAO cannot wait indefinitely for secondary distribution plans to materialize while the underlying blockchain infra shuts down on an accelerated timeline. To protect users from having capital permanently trapped inside a frozen protocol on a sunsetting L1, we must take immediate action. Unfreezing the system and reopening ShadeSwap this Friday allows users to take immediate agency over their remaining positions and exit on their own terms.
3. Moving the Feather Snapshot Deadline to August 5, 2026
Originally, we intended to keep the SHD-to-Feather burn and snapshot contract open until October 15th. However, the operational reality changed overnight. SCRT Labs’ decision to effectively drop official support for the current L1 chain on September 1st introduces massive, unquantifiable existential risks to our protocol if we wait.
To ensure a seamless transition to Feather, the SHD deposit and burn contract will permanently close on August 5, 2026.
The Rationalization for an Accelerated Timeline
We understand that moving a deadline forward by more than two months is aggressive. However, weighing the risks clearly shows that an early cutoff is the only path that ensures protocol survival:
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Avoiding L1 Chaos: When a foundational layer drops support, the risk of validator rebellions, chain forks, RPC infrastructure blackouts, and exchange lockups skyrockets. If the chain halts or fractures while our burn contract is still active, it creates a governance and technical nightmare. We must have a clean dataset locked and secured well before the September 1st migration date.
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The Reality of Attention Dynamics: Our data shows that the vast majority of active stakeholders who care about the future of this protocol are already highly active and paying close attention. Leaving a high risk window open for an extra 60 days to accommodate hypothetical, inactive users puts the entire community’s future allocation at risk.
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Accommodating Unbonding Times: We have carefully balanced this deadline to ensure it remains fair. For example, stkd-SCRT requires a 21 day unbonding period, and staked SHD requires a 7 day unbonding period. Setting the deadline for August 5th gives users who begin unstaking immediately ample time to clear their unbonding lockups and interact with the burn contract.
Critical Action Timeline
To keep things scannable and direct, please adhere strictly to the following chronological milestones:
Step-by-Step: What You Need To Do Right Now
If you hold a balance anywhere within the Shade Protocol ecosystem, follow these exact steps to ensure you do not lose your capital:
Step 1: Unstake Your Assets
Go to the Shade App interface and immediately trigger the unstaking process for both SHD and stkd-SCRT. Because stkd-SCRT takes 21 days to unbond, you must trigger this immediately to ensure your funds are liquid before the August 5th cutoff.
Step 2: Clear Out Smart Contracts & Pools
When trading resumes this Friday at 6:00 p.m. GMT+0, remove all liquidity from ShadeSwap pools. Ensure you hold no wrapped assets inside lending contracts. Move everything to a native, self-custodied wallet balance.
Step 3: Execute the One Way Feather Burn
Once your SHD tokens are liquid in your wallet, visit the official Shade Burn Contract Interface. Deposit your SHD, input your verified EVM (Ethereum/Arbitrum) address, and submit the transaction. This is a one-way, irreversible burn that permanently registers your on-chain commitment for the future Feather token allocation.
Putting the Past Behind Us
This situation is not a crisis of our making, but it is a reality we must steward responsibly. Secret Network is changing its architecture, and as the ShadeDAO dedicated to protecting your commitment, our job is to cut bait from a deteriorating infrastructure layout before it impacts the integrity of Feather.
Feather is working. With over $15M in TVL across multiple vibrant chains, the future of our fixed-rate lending architecture and liquidity syndicates is incredibly bright. By consolidating our snapshot data cleanly on August 5th, we completely insulate the future of Feather from whatever volatility, forks, or technical friction hit the Cosmos L1 layer later that month.
Let’s move fast, act with precision, and build what comes next.
Official updates can be found here: Telegram: View @ShadeProtocol
— Shade Protocol