Pudgy Penguins Owner Is Shutting Down Its Abstract Chain, Where $47 Million Still Sits

Abstract, the Ethereum layer 2 that Pudgy Penguins parent Igloo Inc. built to bring everyday users onchain, will shut down on Dec. 15, its team announced on X on Tuesday. Abstract said anyone who hasn’t bridged out by then will lose access to their funds.

That puts a deadline on roughly $48 million in assets, the value the chain held shortly before the announcement, according to L2BEAT data.

Igloo set out to build a blockchain for consumer crypto after it acquired Frame in the summer of 2024, CEO Luca Netz wrote on X. He wrote that Igloo hoped to take the mass-market playbook behind Pudgy Penguins and apply it to a chain. Abstract’s own figures put the chain at more than 400,000 users, brought in through tie-ins with Red Bull Racing and Disney, and more than 325 million transactions.

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Abstract said its growth began to stagnate as the chain struggled with a narrow DeFi offering and thin liquidity, drew few institutions and had less to spend than competitors. After a year of trying to make the chain scale, it faced a choice: “continue exhausting resources on a chain that is operationally unsustainable and not scaling, or elect to shut it down.”

Netz said Igloo had been funding Abstract for the last 18 months, which most people did not know. He wrote that the company lost “tens of millions of dollars” over two years. He said the company could have launched a token or run an ICO, but chose not to. Without a scalable path forward, he wrote, Igloo “could no longer justify taking from the Pudgy Penguins business.” Its full focus now shifts to Pudgy Penguins, its NFTs and the PENGU token.

Abstract pointed users to its Migration Hub. The chain’s native bridge also works, though Abstract told users to expect a three-hour delay. The hub also lists the Stargate, Relay and Jumper bridges. Its engineering and ecosystem team will work with projects on Abstract to relocate them, the team said, and it warned users about impersonators and fake migration sites.

Blast, another Ethereum layer 2, said on Oct. 2 that it would shut down because running the chain cost more than it earned. Abstract’s announcement came four days later.

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