Key Takeaways
- Abstract, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, will shut down in December.
- Developers blamed a lack of growth and said they’d spent tens of millions of dollars trying to support the chain.
- Blast, another Layer 2 network, will shut down later this month.
On Tuesday, Igloo Inc.—the company behind the crypto-native Pudgy Penguins IP—said that it will shut down Abstract, its Ethereum Layer 2 network that launched in mainnet in January 2025. The network will go offline on Dec. 15, 2026, and any funds not bridged away from the network before then will effectively be lost.
“The industry has evolved considerably since Abstract was first conceived, and operating a chain focused exclusively on consumer crypto has ultimately proven to be unsustainable as a standalone model,” the team wrote on X. “Our growth began to stagnate due to our restricted DeFi ecosystem, thin liquidity on the chain, minimal institutional cross-over, and limited budget compared to competitors.”
Igloo said it weighed various options in the last year to find product-market fit and grow usage of the chain, but found that there was not enough demand to justify its continued existence.
“This led us to a crossroads: continue exhausting resources on a chain that is operationally unsustainable and not scaling, or elect to shut it down,” it wrote. “After extensive deliberation, we agreed that the best path forward was to wind down the chain.”
Abstract failed to build significant momentum within the decentralized finance world, peaking at nearly $58 million worth of total value locked (TVL) on the chain in August 2025, per data from Defillama. That mark has fallen to just $8.4 million, as of this writing.
Chain revenue was similarly modest, peaking at about $795,000 in May 2026 but down to about $121,000 in September. Abstract never launched its long-planned ABS token, which could have fueled network participation around an airdrop campaign.
Pudgy Penguins Back in Focus
In a separate X post, Igloo said that it spent tens of millions of dollars supporting the network and trying to boost adoption. However, it framed the move as a positive in one sense, as the end of the network will allow the team to refocus on Pudgy Penguins, the brand built around NFTs and the PENGU token, along with various consumer goods and themed events.
Last week, the makers of Layer 2 network Blast said they will close down the chain later this month, citing a dramatic fall in revenue after a failure to maintain early momentum. Other Ethereum scaling networks that have shut down or announced plans to do so this year include Sophon and the gaming-centric Redstone.
