Hats Finance announces cessation of custody operations; front-end and back-end services are expected to stop on December 31

Foresight News reported that the proactive bounty protocol Hats Finance, aimed at white hat hackers and auditors, has officially announced the final cessation of its custodial operations. All custodial front-end and back-end services are expected to go offline by December 31, 2025. After careful consideration, the team has decided not to maintain centralized user interface and server operations due to sustainability issues.

During this process, the long-term demand for the HATS token failed to meet expectations, the smart contract security budget did not adapt to the development of decentralized finance (DeFi), and at the same time, the rapid advancement of AI security tools and the maturity of reusable smart contract security building blocks have reduced the ongoing demand for protocols like Hats.

The custodial front-end and back-end (user interface and server) of Hats Finance are expected to cease service on December 31, 2025. Most features that rely on this custodial tech stack will be gradually phased out. The Hats protocol remains deployed on-chain and is managed by the DAO. The core contracts will continue to operate according to their code. An IPFS version of the front-end is currently available, and as long as this version remains operational (for example, via funding-locked providers or community nodes), it can be accessed through public gateways. Since payments to current funding-locked providers (such as Pinata) will cease, the official team cannot guarantee its continued availability or performance.

If users have deposits and wish to use the custodial user interface for withdrawals, it is recommended to initiate withdrawal requests before December 17, 2025. If this window is missed, users can re-initiate requests or interact directly with the contract. Although the core contracts will continue to operate on-chain and be managed by the DAO, users should pay attention to the relevant logic and network conditions.