Igloo Inc., the parent company behind Pudgy Penguins, said it will shut down its consumer-focused Ethereum layer-2 network Abstract on Dec. 15, 2026, ending a project that launched its mainnet in January 2025 with ambitions to bring crypto to mainstream users.

The company said it backed the effort for 18 months but ultimately failed to find product-market fit, despite onboarding hundreds of thousands of users, deploying more than 144 apps and securing partnerships with brands including Red Bull Racing and Disney.

A consumer crypto push comes to an end

Abstract was built as a consumer-first Ethereum scaling network designed to make blockchain products easier to use and more appealing through entertainment-focused distribution. The project was positioned as a route to broader crypto adoption beyond the industry’s core trading and finance audiences.

According to Igloo CEO Luca Netz, the company spent 18 months funding the chain and broader consumer product efforts. He said those efforts resulted in tens of millions of dollars in losses without producing the product-market fit the company was seeking.

Scale did not resolve the core issue

By the time of the shutdown announcement, Abstract said its network had more than 144 apps deployed and had onboarded over 400,000 users. It also cited partnerships with major brands such as Red Bull Racing and Disney as evidence of the reach it had managed to build.

Even with that traction, Igloo said the model ran into structural constraints. The company pointed to limited crossover with institutional users, thin liquidity and a restricted DeFi ecosystem as factors that undercut the consumer-first strategy and made it difficult for the chain to scale sustainably.

Users told to move assets before the deadline

Abstract said users who still hold funds on the network should bridge their assets off the chain before Dec. 15, 2026. After that date, the network will shut down and any funds that remain unbridged will become inaccessible.

The warning makes the wind-down timeline especially important for users and applications that still rely on the network. The announcement did not present an alternative mechanism for recovering assets after the cutoff.

Support for project migration is the next confirmed step

As part of the closure, Abstract said its engineering and ecosystem team will help projects currently operating on the network migrate to other chains. That support is aimed at developers and apps affected by the shutdown as they plan where to relocate.

For now, the clearest next steps are the asset bridge deadline for users and migration assistance for builders. The decision closes a notable attempt to build a mainstream entertainment-led layer-2, while underscoring the company’s view that user growth and brand partnerships alone were not enough to establish a durable consumer crypto network.

Source: cointelegraph.com