Ronin to migrate to OP Stack L2; 10-hour outage May 12

Ronin will switch its gaming blockchain to an Ethereum Layer-2 built on the OP Stack via a hard fork at block 55,577,490. The migration is scheduled to begin May 12 at about 15:16 UTC and is expected to cause roughly 10 hours of downtime. During that window transfers, swaps, smart contract calls and on-chain gaming will be suspended. The network urged users to complete pending transactions before the fork.

The update moves Ronin from an independent sidechain to an OP Stack rollup. Data availability will be handled by EigenDA, a separate service for storing transaction data that Ronin says will lower storage costs while preserving throughput. Nodes will be reconfigured during the outage as the network adopts the new rollup state.

Ronin cited security as a key reason for the change. In March 2022 attackers linked to the Lazarus Group compromised five of nine validators and drained about $625 million from the Ronin bridge. A smaller exploit occurred in August 2024. Ronin said inheriting Ethereum mainnet security through the OP Stack should reduce the risk of validator compromise and bridge exploits.

The migration restructures RON token economics. Ronin will redirect 90 million RON previously earmarked for staking rewards into the Ronin Treasury, lowering annual inflation from more than 20% to under 1%. Marketplace fees will fall from 1.25% to 0.5%. The network will replace its staking model with a “Proof of Distribution” system that allocates rewards based on contributions such as development and operations rather than passive token locking. Ronin described the inflation change as “fundamentally bullish” for the token.

Market data showed RON trading near $0.11 with a market capitalization around $89.5 million. The token rose about 30% over the prior 30 days.

Nodes, validators and developers must follow Ronin’s upgrade instructions and monitor official channels for post-fork guidance. After the migration services are expected to resume with lower inflation, reduced marketplace fees and a rewards model focused on operational and development contributions while relying on Ethereum-level security for validator and bridge integrity.