Polygon's zkEVM Mainnet Beta sunset notice is still active decision support because it includes a live exit timetable, a clear wallet-versus-protocol distinction, and a hard operational consequence once the sequencer stops processing transactions.
Radar reads it as chain-distribution news. The key question is not just whether users can claim later. It is which funds can move automatically, which need manual unwinds, and how much protocol activity has to leave the chain before July 1, 2026.
What Happened
In Polygon's official forum announcement, the team says wallet-held assets not bridged before July 1, 2026 will be auto-migrated to Ethereum L1 and later claimable through a dedicated interface. The same post says funds locked in DeFi protocols cannot be auto-migrated.
Polygon also says users with funds in DeFi protocols should withdraw from those contracts and bridge to Ethereum before July 1, while protocol teams with locked TVL should unwind user positions or provide a withdrawal path before that date. After July 1, the sequencer sunsets and remaining onchain wallet balances are snapshotted.
Why It Matters
That split is exactly why this is more than a generic sunset note. Wallet balances and protocol balances now have different risk paths. A chain can still look operational at a glance while any liquidity trapped in application contracts becomes a manual ops problem with a real deadline.
For protocol discovery, this also changes ecosystem distribution. Teams that move users cleanly off zkEVM may preserve trust and routing relevance elsewhere. Teams that delay can end up converting a chain update into a wallet and compatibility headache for their users.
What To Watch Next
Watch which protocols publish concrete withdrawal or migration routes before July 1 instead of relying on the chain-level announcement alone. Those protocol-level responses will separate well-managed exits from abandoned surfaces.
Also watch where the activity goes. A sunset with manual DeFi unwinds is not only an operations story; it is a redistribution story across the chains and apps that capture the users and liquidity leaving zkEVM.
