Linear Finance Shutdown: LINA and lUSD Status (2026)

Linear Finance and LINA status in 2026

Linear Finance is no longer operating. The project issued a notice of closure on 27 March 2025, citing an inability to generate sustainable returns and the loss of operational runway after Binance announced it would delist LINA. The team told users to exit and scheduled the final shutdown of its application suite for 2 April 2025 at 12:00 UTC.

Item	Status checked 13 August 2026
Linear Finance team	Operations ceased in April 2025
Synthetic Exchange, Builder and PerpDEX	Shut down; no maintained trading or minting application was verified
ETH/BSC bridge	Closed permanently at shutdown
`linear.finance`	Now resolves to a domain-parking page, not the former protocol
Old app subdomains	`buildr`, `exchange` and `perpdex` no longer resolve
Ethereum LINA	Legacy ERC-20 at `0x3E9BC21C9b189C09dF3eF1B824798658d5011937`
BNB Smart Chain LINA	Legacy BEP-20 at `0x762539b45A1dCcE3D36d080F74d1AED37844b878`
lUSD and synthetic assets	No operating issuer, exchange or supported redemption route was verified

A token contract can continue to accept transfers after the project and its interfaces close. That on-chain persistence does not mean that LINA retains its former collateral, staking, governance or fee utility.

Linear Finance shutdown timeline

21 September 2023: an attacker obtained a minting role, created an unlimited amount of the protocol's synthetic lAAVE and exchanged it for Linear USD (lUSD), draining external lUSD liquidity. Linear paused contracts and disabled the lUSD bridge while investigating.
Early 2025: Linear announced that it would sunset its Synthetic DEX and Builder while focusing on its perpetual-futures exchange and an AI-oriented roadmap.
21 March 2025: Binance announced that it would remove LINA spot pairs on 28 March.
27 March 2025: Linear announced that it would cease operations. It said funding from the owner and token sales was no longer sustainable and that key stakeholders had decided to wind down.
2 April 2025: the team scheduled the dApp suite, bridge, PerpDEX and community support channels to close. It said a burn-and-unstake portal would remain for users clearing debt and withdrawing collateral.
August 2026 review: the former domain is parked and the application subdomains are unavailable, so no official recovery interface can be recommended.

What the 2023 lUSD exploit means

Linear USD was the protocol's synthetic settlement asset; it is unrelated to Liquity's stablecoin, which also uses the ticker LUSD. During the September 2023 attack, the exploiter minted unlimited lAAVE, traded it into Linear's lUSD and sold the lUSD against liquidity on PancakeSwap and AscendEX. The incident depleted available liquidity and caused a severe depeg.

Linear later continued operating and introduced new products, but that did not erase the exploit or turn old lUSD into a general claim on dollars. With the issuer and its bridge now closed, do not buy “discounted” Linear lUSD on the assumption that it can be redeemed at $1.

LINA contracts and current liquidity

The historical Ethereum token contract is 0x3E9BC21C9b189C09dF3eF1B824798658d5011937, and the BNB Smart Chain token contract is 0x762539b45A1dCcE3D36d080F74d1AED37844b878. Verify them with Etherscan and BscScan.

Block-explorer labels are warnings, not endorsements. Etherscan currently flags the Ethereum contract address as associated with phishing or hacking activity, while BscScan still labels the BNB Chain proxy as Linear's token. Because the project is closed, users should avoid approvals or contract interactions that are not strictly necessary to recover an existing balance.

On 13 August 2026, the largest LINA pool returned by Dex Screener on BNB Chain contained only about $2,400 in liquidity and had roughly $75 of volume over the preceding 24 hours. Values change, but this is extremely thin liquidity. A tracker price or nominal market capitalization does not show how much can actually be sold without severe slippage.

What legacy users can do

Do not connect a wallet to linear.finance; it is a parked domain and no longer the protocol website.
Do not use an old bridge address. Linear said its Ethereum/BNB Chain bridges would close permanently on 2 April 2025.
Never pay an upfront “tax,” “unlock fee” or “recovery deposit,” and never reveal a seed phrase to someone claiming to be Linear support.
Use the original transaction hash to identify the exact staking or debt contract. Check balances and contract state through a read-only block explorer first.
If collateral remains locked, determine whether the verified contract exposes a direct burn, repay, unstake or emergency-withdraw function. Do not guess calldata or interact with an unverified copy.
Preserve wallet addresses, transaction hashes and screenshots. For a material position, obtain independent smart-contract help before signing anything.
Review and revoke obsolete approvals after any legitimate withdrawal attempt.

Corrections to the original guide

The project, exchange, Builder, bridge, staking program, marketplace and PerpDEX are no longer operating.
The 370%–600% pre-staking APYs, 75% initial inflation and weekly fee rewards described below were historical incentive figures, not durable returns.
The old list of exchanges is obsolete. Hotbit and Hoo closed, Binance delisted LINA, and availability elsewhere can change without notice.
“Infinite liquidity” and “no slippage” described the protocol's synthetic debt-pool model; they never guaranteed liquid external redemption or risk-free execution.
Linear lUSD suffered a major minting exploit in September 2023 and should not be confused with Liquity USD.
Sending an ERC-20 token to an EVM wallet address does not inherently destroy it merely because the wallet is set to BNB Chain, but using the wrong network, bridge, deposit contract or exchange network can make funds inaccessible.

Original Linear Finance guide (historical archive)

The following article is preserved substantially as written for historical context. Its app links, exchange list, yields, token utility, bridge instructions and optimistic conclusion are not current recommendations. Unsafe or dead transaction links have been converted to plain text.

Linear Finance ($LINA) understands that decentralized finance (DeFi) has opened new possibilities for derivative offerings and that many exchanges have the apparent problems of front-running, expensive gas fees, and liquidity issues. Linear Finance seeks to go around those issues with its cheap, quick, and transparent synthetic asset exchange platform. With Linear, users can simply make a synthetic asset that contains a portfolio of different underlying tokens based on the exposure that they are willing to take. This presents new yield-making opportunities for anyone based on their customized financial goals.

Check out our interview with Linear Finance!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcXsEwj5hpI

Background

Drey Ng and Kevin Tai, Co-founders of Linear Finance, built the project with a vision of an inclusive and more democratized access to investment opportunities. By their team’s expertise in different crypto initiatives and financial instruments, Linear made a cross-chain, Ethereum-based protocol that seeks to fulfill their vision.

With Linear, users can make their own portfolio exposures and manage them on their own. This initiative enables investors to easily invest, save, and earn efficient profits from their assets.

What is Linear Finance?

Linear Finance is a decentralized delta-one asset protocol where users can make, manage, and trade synthetic assets. This gives users exposure to different kinds of assets without having to actually own their underlying assets.

An additional feature that Linear Finance has introduced is a cross-chain compatible and decentralized protocol that can support a faster, more affordable, and secure exchange of synthetic assets.

Linear Finance’s platform is powered by its native token, LINA. It can be used for many purposes such as payments, staking, liquidity mining, governance, and investing in “Liquids.” Liquids are Linear’s synthetic assets composed of different underlying tokens or investment options.

LinearDAO

LinearDAO is the governance community who controls important platform designs and system parameters including pledge ration, LINA inflation reward and frequency, transactions fees, proposal implementation, and many more. Furthermore, they also regulate the profit and loss regarding liquidation.

Perks and Special Features

The project promises infinite liquidity and no slippage. Here are some of the perks users can find with Linear Finance:

Convenience: The protocol promises quick transactions with low transaction fees. Any kind of user can enjoy the platform as well, whether they are a market maker, staker, or trader.
Transparency: To prevent front-running, every transaction made within the exchange is made transparent to all users. This also reduces systemic risks on the part of each network participant.
Ethereum-based: Because it is built on the Ethereum network with cross-chain compatibility, it can work alongside other DeFi projects too.
User-tailored options: There are different exposure options that users can freely choose from, such as other tokens, commodities, or market indices.

The whole Linear platform is built on two different blockchains but they complement each other thanks to cross-chain compatibility. For users, they only need to open an Ethereum-based wallet and an EVM-compatible wallet.

Linear automatically links these two together through smart contracts. Here are some of the advantages of an infrastructure modeled around that concept. They are:

Maximized DeFi support: While LinearDAO and LINA tokens are based on Ethereum, its use of EVM and smart contracts make it easy for the platform to interact with other DeFi protocols.
Affordability: Buildr and Exchange function through smart contracts on top of EVM-compatible blockchains. This enables Linear to support the building and trading of Liquids at very minimal gas fees.
Fewer risks of front-running: The block time confirmation for other EVM-compatible blockchains are much faster than Ethereum. This allows users to create their own Liquids at more updated prices through the help of oracles. This way, the risk of users front-running the exchange becomes much lower.

LINA Token

LINA can be used for payments, staking, and governance participation. But mainly, LINA functions as the base collateral needed to mint Liquids through Buildr, the decentralized application (dApp) designed to manage synthetic assets.

To create Liquids, users have to “pledge” 100% of their digital assets, which also means collateralization. This is to ensure that Liquids are fully-backed by an underlying asset, saving the stability of the system from the volatility of synthetic assets. The pledge requirement can be reduced eventually if the LinearDAO deems it necessary.

Collateralization

Buildr takes a hybrid approach in terms of collateralization. For Liquids, users need to deposit a mixture of LINA and other cryptocurrency tokens to generate a synthetic asset. The ratio is 80:20, where at least 80% of the collateral must be in LINA and 20% can be in other cryptocurrencies.

Staking

Staking LINA offers users many incentives. These are the following rewards that users can receive by doing so:

Exchange Fee Reward: The transaction fees collected from users of the Linear.Exchange platform, currently set at 0.25%, is redistributed weekly to LINA stakers on a pro-rata basis. For non-LINA stakers, these rewards can also be provided too but it will depend on the decision of the community governance council.
Inflationary Reward: LINA has a starting inflation rate of 75% which decreases on a weekly basis. The inflation reward is given to LINA stakers on a pro-rata basis as well.
Yield Farming: Yield farmers help maintain Linear’s debt pool and the whole platform. For the first two years of the project, users who actively use the exchange can receive token bonuses. These token bonuses can then be deposited by yield farmers in other liquidity pools such as Balancer, Curve, and Uniswap.

Where can I buy/sell/trade $LINA?

$LINA was then tradable on exchanges such as Bitmax, MXC, Bilaxy, Bibox, Hotbit and Hoo.

Linear.Exchange

In facilitating faster trade activities with almost unlimited liquidity, Linear is building their own exchange. As of now, Liquid is collaborating with other public blockchains to reduce transaction settlement timeframes to as quick as one second every transaction coupled with instant finality.

With a plan of partnering with oracles, Linear also believes that they can solve problems with front-running as they gain the capability of refreshing prices on a frequent and quick basis at much lower prices for the underlying assets.

Linear Finance ($LINA) token public sale

The token public sale took place on 14th September 2020. A total of 47,222,222 LINA tokens were sold in 2 rounds. The first round had 25mil tokens at $0.00400 per token. The second round, 22,222,222 tokens at $0.00450 per token.

The sale was 40 times oversubscribed and closed earlier than expected (it was supposed to last for 24 hours). Each participant in the sale had to purchase 500 USDT/USDC worth of LINA. Hence only 400 participants were able to get the allocation on a FIRST COME FIRST SERVED basis. This was determined by the time/date stamp on their Google Form submission. The first 200 users were allocated LINA tokens from round 1, and the remaining 200 participants from round 2. This was however subject to the registrants completing the KYC process in a period of 24 hours.

$LINA was first listed on Uniswap and reached more than 20x from public sale price (and around 60x from private sale round 1). It is now stabilized at around $0.005 (as at 3 November 2020).

Linear pre-staking platform

Immediately after listing, Linear Finance has launched its staking platform. Holders can participate in the 8 weeks pre-staking program and get rewarded. The APY has been around 600% for weeks and has now decreased around 370%. All the earnings will be claimable 6 months after mainnet launch but users can withdraw their staked funds at anytime.

Partnership announcements

In the weeks following the launch, Linear has announced partnerships with Nervos, Moonbeam and Hex Trust.

Nervos is an open source blockchain that offers security and trustlessness without compromising on scalability and performance with its unique layered architecture. The collaboration is focused on improving Linear’s cross chain capabilities and penetration of the Chinese market.

Moonbeam, an Ethereum ($ETH) compatible smart contract parachain, is a strategic partner to help set the feet into the Polkadot ($DOT) ecosystem and level up Linear’s interoperability. Finally, the partnership with Hex Trust as a custody partner, will give Linear the chance to offer secure, institutional grade custodial services for institutional investors.

A next announcement has revealed a new partnership with 3Commas, a cryptocurrency trading platform that helps users build automated trading bots. The investment is meant “to include future integration of the platforms and tools, streamlining operations and allowing for a greater range of features and offerings”.

Testnet is live

On 16th October 2020, the first testnet for Buildr has been released. Buildr is one of the core dApps of the Linear suite, where users can stake their $LINA (and soon more collaterals) to build ℓUSD, the base currency of Linear Exchange. Stakers are entitled to rewards and to a part of the transaction fees generated by the exchange. ℓUSD tokens can be minted to purchase synthetic assets within the exchange itself and can be moved to other protocols.

The last testnet update has just come out allowing users to purchase “Liquids” with ℓUSD on Linear.Exchange. Meanwhile, mainnet launch is allegedly happening in a couple of weeks.

If you want to read more and discover how to contribute to the testnet, please have a look at the articles here and here.

More than 222 million of $LINA tokens are staked, for a total value of more than USD$1 million.

New Partnership with Band Protocol

In this article dated November 16, Linear Finance has ufficially announced their partnership with Band Protocol, cross-chain decentralised oracle.

The biggest problem this collaboration is trying to solve is front running. As Drey Ng, Co-Founder at Linear Finance said: “Front running is a fundamental problem not just for current synthetic asset trading but all trading in general”. Not solving this problem would jeopardize all “the benefits of cross-chain compatibility (such as speed and cost), and a superior creative selection of synthetic assets”.

How Band Protocol Oracle works with Linear

Other reasons why Band Protocol was chosen are the minimized network risk., end-to-end customizability for real-time data and truly decentralized oracle mechanism. The partnership will start securing the Linear Protocol on Binance smart Chain, the first project’s cross-integration, where the BEP token has just been created (the common $LINA we see on exchanges is an ERC-20 token).

The team is now working on features to allow users to seamlessly swap chains.

Mainnet Buildr Launch and new staking program

The Linear Mainnet Buildr v1.0 went live on December the 21st, after months of extensive testing. The Buildr dApp is the heart of Linear’s decentralised application suite. Users can stake $LINA tokens to build ℓUSD and earn rewards. Here is a complete and detailed guide on how to use Buildr to the fullest.

All of the $LINA from the pre-staking program were migrated seamlessly to the mainnet and while previously earned rewards will be blocked until next June, new mainnet staking rewards will be locked for 1 year from launch. They will count towards the P-Ratio and can be used to build $LUSD. It is important to note that in order to be eligible for rewards, users are required build ℓUSD or any subsequent Liquids.

Binance Smart Chain’s Buildr v2.0 launch

As anticipated, Linear wants to bring Cross Chain compatibility and ease of use to Defi and Ethereum users. The team had, in fact, previously declared that “Linear was designed for all users (no matter how much LINA you hold) and transaction costs will not become a barrier to entry. Nobody will get left behind”.

The promise has been kept and Linear.Builder Mainnet v2.0 with full Binance Smart Chain (BSC) integration and swap has gone live on January the 15th, 2021. Users can now enjoy almost gasless fees when interacting with the platform.

The transaction was seamless and old stakers only have to connect to Buildr via MetaMask using the BSC Mainnet (they can also use Binance Chain Wallet) and they will see their Lina tokens and rewards already there. For new holders who would like to stake for the first time, there is an internal ERC-20 -> BEP20 swap whithin Buildr itself. More info and complete instructions can be found on the Medium article.

Be careful!: There are now two versions of the $LINA token. If you send the Etherum version to a BSC wallet or vice-versa (whether it is a custodial or non-custodial address) you will lose your tokens! If in doubt on what to do, contact the support team via the official channels which you can find on their Website.

Linear will be listed on Binance Innovation Zone

Binance has announced it will list Linear Finance’s $LINA token on its Innovation Zone. Trading for $LINA/$BTC, $LINA/$BUSD and $LINA/$USDT trading pairs will start at 12:00pm (UTC) on 18th March 2021.

Furthermore, Binance Launchpad is offering 21,084,000 LINA tokens for sale at at 0.00031044 BNB for 1 LINA. Subscription has already ended at 1:00p.m. (HKT) on 18th March 2021 and tokens will be sent to successful applicants at 6:00p.m. (HKT) on the same day.

Conclusion

With the rising gas prices in Ethereum, as well as the emerging trend of yield farming, the DeFi space is presented with new financial opportunities but is discouraged by its costs. Projects such as Linear is a promising addition to the space as it seeks to go around these problems.

With Linear as a platform to easily build and manage investments, users can now enjoy quick and affordable profit-building opportunities. And in recognition of the real purpose of decentralization, Linear appears to be on the right track after putting in the pipelines a roadmap for a planned transition to community governance.

Linear is certainly on the radar of a lot of renowned investors in this space. They have recently completed a USD$1.8m seed round with notable backers in the investment space such as NGC Ventures, Hashed, CMS Holdings, Genesis Block, Kenetic Capital, Alameda Research, Evernew Capital, Soul Capital, Moonrock Capital, Black Edge Capital and PANONY. According to Linear, this funding will go towards accelerating the development of their testnet and mainnet, as well as promoting their platform. It will certainly be exciting to see what the Linear Finance team will be releasing in the months to come.

Decentralised Finance (DeFi) series: tutorials, guides and more

With content for both beginners and more advanced users, check out our YouTube DeFi series containing tutorials on the ESSENTIAL TOOLS you need for trading in the DeFi space e.g. MetaMask and Uniswap. As well as a deep dive into popular DeFi topics such as decentralized exchanges, borrowing-lending platforms and NFT marketplaces

The DeFi series on this website also covers topics not explored on YouTube. For an introduction on what is DeFi, check out Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Overview: A guide to the HOTTEST trend in cryptocurrency

Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

More videos and articles are coming soon as part of our DeFi series, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube channel so you can be notified as soon as they come out!

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

Frequently asked questions

Is Linear Finance still active?

No. Linear Finance announced its closure on 27 March 2025 and scheduled its application suite to shut down on 2 April 2025.

Why did Linear Finance close?

The team said the project could not generate sustainable returns and had relied on personal funding and token liquidations. Binance's decision to delist LINA sharply reduced its remaining operational runway.

Is linear.finance still the official protocol website?

No. The domain now displays a parking page. Do not connect a wallet, approve tokens or enter information there because an old article or token tracker still calls it official.

What are the official LINA token contracts?

The historical Ethereum contract is 0x3E9BC21C9b189C09dF3eF1B824798658d5011937. The BNB Smart Chain contract is 0x762539b45A1dCcE3D36d080F74d1AED37844b878. Verify the network and full address on a block explorer.

Does LINA still have utility?

It no longer has verified utility in a team-operated Linear app. Token transfers and small secondary markets may remain, but the former staking, collateral, governance and fee uses ended with the protocol.

Can LINA still be traded?

Some small markets may quote LINA, but liquidity is extremely thin and major listings changed after the closure. A displayed price may not be executable for a meaningful order.

What happened to Linear USD (lUSD)?

Linear's lUSD suffered a major minting exploit in September 2023. The project later continued, but its applications and bridge closed in 2025, and no supported current redemption route was verified.

Is Linear lUSD the same as Liquity USD?

No. Both used the LUSD ticker, but they were issued by different protocols with different contracts and risk models. Always identify a token by network and contract address.

Can I still bridge LINA between Ethereum and BNB Chain?

Not through Linear's old bridge. The team said the ETH/BSC bridge would close permanently on 2 April 2025. Do not send assets to an archived bridge contract.

How can I recover staked LINA or clear old lUSD debt?

No maintained official interface was verified. Start from your original transactions and inspect the verified contracts in read-only mode. If direct contract interaction is possible, use independent expert help and never give anyone your seed phrase.