Abstract, Igloo Inc.’s Ethereum layer-2, to shut down December 15

Abstract, the Ethereum layer-2 network built by Igloo Inc., will shut down on December 15, 2026. Igloo is the company behind Pudgy Penguins. It spent roughly a year and a half trying to turn its NFT fame into a full blockchain business. That experiment is now ending. The shutdown follows 18 months of financial losses that ran into the tens of millions of dollars. Users who still hold assets on the network have a deadline, and missing it could cost them access to their funds permanently. What happened to Abstract The causes cited were stagnant growth inside a restricted DeFi ecosystem, low on-chain liquidity, and limited institutional adoption. CEO Luca Netz indicated that there will be no Abstract token. That detail matters for anyone who had been using the network in hopes of a future airdrop, a common motivation for early users of new chains. Netz framed the decision as a question of priorities. The company chose not to keep funding Abstract at the expense of its core Pudgy Penguins business. For users, the practical instruction is simple. Bridge assets off Abstract through the designated migration hubs before December 15, or risk losing access to them for good. The numbers behin...