The Neo Legacy MainNet was officially decommissioned on Oct. 31, 2025, marking the end of a nine-year operational period for the original Neo blockchain.
Before the shutdown, a final snapshot of the Neo Legacy chain was taken to preserve its historical state. Although users who did not migrate their assets to Neo N3 prior to the closure will still have a future opportunity to do so, the post-shutdown migration process will rely on an off-chain mechanism and is expected to be significantly slower than the on-chain option available before deactivation.
The legacy network has been shut down, but your assets are not lost. We’ll be announcing an off-chain migration plan soon for neo legacy holders. Please note that off-chain migration won’t be as convenient as on-chain migration, but it will still allow you to recover your assets… https://t.co/5h1m26doZz
— Erik Zhang (@neoerikzhang) November 3, 2025
Over the course of its lifetime, Neo Legacy produced more than 14 million blocks and processed over 281 million transactions. The network supported nearly 3 million unique addresses and facilitated the creation of 213 distinct asset categories. Serving as the foundational infrastructure for the early development of the Neo ecosystem, Neo Legacy played a central role in establishing the community and its core functionalities.
Neo Legacy was succeeded by Neo N3 in June 2021. The upgraded protocol introduced a redesigned architecture featuring built-in oracles, on-chain governance, native decentralized storage, and enhanced smart contract performance. Due to the lack of backward compatibility between Neo N3 and its predecessor, a dual-chain approach was maintained to provide users and developers sufficient time to migrate assets and applications. With Neo Legacy now decommissioned, ongoing development efforts are focused on Neo N3, including work on its next major protocol iteration, Neo v4.0
Neo was originally founded in 2014 by Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang under the name AntShares. The AntShares MainNet launched in October 2016, focused on digital identity, digital assets, and smart contract execution. The project rebranded to Neo in 2017 as it began expanding globally. When development on Neo N3 began, the original chain was designated Neo Legacy to reflect its status as the earlier protocol generation.
About The Author: Dean Jeffs
Dean is a digital project manager who has worked extensively with start ups and agencies in the marketing space. Fascinated by the potential applications of blockchain technology, Dean has a passion for realising the new smart economy.
More posts by Dean Jeffs