Botanix to wind down Bitcoin layer‑2 network in July

Botanix announced on Wednesday, June 9, that it will wind down its Bitcoin layer‑2 network and asked users to withdraw funds before July 9. The team warned that deposits would become unrecoverable after that date.

The network launched less than a year earlier as an “EVM‑equivalent” layer‑2, designed to let developers port Ethereum applications to run on Bitcoin while using Bitcoin as the settlement layer. In its postmortem the project wrote it never reached the user activity needed to sustain operations and that transaction fee revenue remained negligible.

Botanix Labs raised $8.5 million in a 2024 seed round with participation from Bitcoin figures including Dan Held and Eric Wall. The company marketed the network as a way to trade, lend, borrow and stake using native Bitcoin and described safeguards intended to preserve self‑custody, such as a federation of independent node operators.

The team wrote that Bitcoin continues to be viewed primarily as a reserve asset rather than a network for frequent on‑chain applications. It added that many users and investors have preferred wrapped Bitcoin on established Ethereum layer‑2 networks because they find those options cheaper and easier to use.

Botanix wrote it had planned a native token but canceled those plans after concluding the product had not achieved sufficient traction. The postmortem cited low “attention flow” and competition from more established firms as constraints on growth and revenue.

On‑chain balances fell from a peak of $26.3 million in September to about $120,000 at the time of the winding‑down notice. Daily fee generation had dropped to roughly $10, the team wrote, which it said made the network uneconomical to operate.

The announcement included two direct lines from the team: “It is with a heavy heart that we announce we are winding down the Botanix network,” and “We were, and still are, believers in decentralization.”

Botanix asked node operators and users to watch for further technical details and timelines as the wind‑down proceeds and said it would provide additional maintenance information in coming updates.