Why Abstract is killing its Ethereum L2 instead of launching a token to save it

Abstract will shut down on Dec. 15 despite onboarding more than 400,000 users, hosting 144 apps, and landing brands including Disney and Red Bull Racing.The consumer-focused Ethereum layer-2 (L2) cited stagnant growth, thin liquidity, restricted DeFi activity, and limited institutional crossover.Igloo CEO Luca Netz said the company had lost “tens of millions of dollars” supporting the network and chose to forgo a token launch as a lifeline. Abstract says funds left on the chain at the deadline will become inaccessible.Users arrived, and liquidity stayed homeDefiLlama's snapshot shows that Abstract’s 41,078 daily active addresses produced $9.7 million in DeFi total value locked (TVL), $6.4 million in stablecoins, $398,134 in daily DEX volume and $2,876 in daily chain revenue, roughly $1 million annualized.In comparison, Coinbase-backed Base logged 325,671 daily active addresses, $6.4 billion in DeFi TVL, $5.2 billion in stablecoins and over $1 billion in daily DEX volume.This means that Base's active-address count runs about 7.9 times Abstract's, while its DeFi TVL runs about 662 times higher and its DEX volume about 2,722 times higher. Each daily active address on Base carries roug...