Onchain Heroes Says Ringbearers, Heroes and Keys Are Safe as Abstract Winds Down

In Brief:

• Onchain Heroes says Ringbearers, heroes and Maze of Gains keys are safe after Igloo Inc. said its Abstract chain will shut down Dec. 15.
• The studio’s weekly patch retired Marbles, the in-game route to Abstract XP, and opened pro-rata Expedition Pass refunds paid in VALOR.
• Players don’t need to act yet, and the studio said it will share next steps soon.

Onchain Heroes told players their Ringbearers, heroes and Maze of Gains keys are safe, two days after Igloo Inc. said Abstract, the chain its games run on, will shut down Dec. 15.

“No action needed for now, and we’ll share next steps soon,” the studio said in its weekly patch notes on X, posted Oct. 8.

Igloo, the company behind Pudgy Penguins PENGU $0.008096 ▼ -18.3%, announced Oct. 6 that Abstract goes offline Dec. 15 and that funds not bridged off the chain by then will be inaccessible.

Marbles retired

The sharpest cut is Marbles. The item was how players earned Abstract XP, and with the chain shutting down, that XP “no longer counts toward anything,” the studio said. Runs, Treasure, Gems and the weekly prize pool are unchanged.

Mini Jackalot now pays on every defeat. “If Mini Jackalot doesn’t drop a Gem, he now drops 100 Treasure instead of leaving you empty-handed,” the studio said. Gem odds stay the same, and beating him counts toward the weekly prize pool.

Expedition Pass holders with time remaining can cancel through the “My Pass” menu for a refund. “The amount is pro-rata, so it’s based on how many days are left on your Pass,” the studio said. Refunds are paid in VALOR.

This week’s numbers

Players created 1,837 runs and burnt 23,601 keys, per the studio’s figures. The weekly prize pool came to $16,521, with $4,971 in Gem payouts to players. The prior week’s thread reported 5,908 runs, 80,735 keys burnt and a $56,515 pool.

A home chain going dark

Onchain Heroes runs its franchise on Abstract: the idle RPG organized around Genesis Hero NFTs and the HERO token, the Maze of Gains dungeon crawler and VALOR, a dollar-pegged stablecoin bought with USDC on the network. Abstract launched mainnet in January 2025 and counted more than 400,000 users and 144 apps at the time of the shutdown announcement.

Igloo CEO Luca Netz said the company had funded Abstract for 18 months and lost tens of millions of dollars doing it. “Even after losing 8 figures, we could have launched a token or pursued an ICO. Ultimately we decided against this,” Netz said in an Oct. 6 post on X.

The Abstract team cited stagnant growth, thin liquidity, a restricted DeFi ecosystem and limited institutional adoption in its announcement. The chain is the second Ethereum layer 2 to announce a shutdown in a week, after Blast said Oct. 2 that operating costs exceeded revenue.

Deeds already live elsewhere

Part of the franchise has already moved off Abstract. Deeds, a 3,333-supply utility NFT tied to the Yield Fields crossover, mint on Robinhood Chain: a gated mint is scheduled Oct. 12, a public auction Oct. 13 and a reveal Oct. 19. Ringbearers and Genesis Ring holders hold 1,000 guaranteed spots, with a Ringbearer snapshot due Oct. 11.

The studio said players spent $5 million during Deed season, the September event that put 850 whitelist spots up for grabs through Maze of Gains play.