Botanix Labs has announced the closure of Bitcoin’s Layer 2 (L2) network, known as Spiderchain, which has been operating on mainnet for over a year.
According to the company’s official statement released on June 9, this decision is in response to the inability to achieve product-market fit. This is in a context where Bitcoin continues to be seen primarily as a store of value rather than programmable money.
Spiderchain was described by Botanix as follows: The first layer of Bitcoin with a decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem 2 As CriptoNoticias reported at the time, it will be fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing any application developed for Ethereum to run on Bitcoin.
According to data provided by the company itself, the network recorded 25 million transactions, 200,000 active wallets during operation, and zero security incidents.
Botanix has also achieved integration with protocols such as GMX, Morpho, Chainlink, Fireblocks, Alchemy, Galaxy, OKX Wallet, as well as Aave. The team identifies five structural reasons for closure.
- market timing.
- Deterioration of the token launch model.
- User preferences for WBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin) and native Bitcoin solutions on Ethereum.
- Integrate your ecosystem around your platform while controlling your relationships with your users.
- Fee income is insufficient to cover infrastructure costs.
The Native DeFi Dilemma in Bitcoin
Botanix on market timing Public debate on Bitcoin suggests it remains focused on its role as a reserve asset And not in its programmability, but in its financial and political positioning.
The company notes that these questions go beyond what Bitcoin’s Layer 2 will ask the market to do, recognizing that it is impossible to predict when or if that change will occur. The team also acknowledges that Bitcoin may simply be consolidated as a store of value, and that there may not be a market for what it builds.
Regarding the token model, Botanix claims it always intended to launch something new.But he saw it as a true form of participation in the project, more like an open call than an airdrop, and conditional on first achieving product-market fit. That moment never came.
The company further notes that over the past year, token launches in the open market have been lower than expected, and the results not expected by the model have not been achieved.
Regarding the demand for DeFi on Bitcoin, the team suggests that for the majority of current use cases (lending, yield, leveraged exposure): WBTC on General Purpose Layer 2 on Ethereum is enough.
Botanix claims that users voted with their actions. The premise of trustworthiness of Ethereum-wrapped representations is one that is acceptable to almost everyone who wants Bitcoin-denominated DeFi. The company points out that while decentralization is important in the discussion, in reality users choose the cheapest and most accessible option.
Regarding ecosystem integration, Botanix warns that the on-chain economy is increasingly focused on platforms that control relationships with users, i.e., with centralized exchanges, hyperliquids, and traditional financial participants that absorb a growing portion of the attention and flows.
The company claims: As retail share shrinksthat focus will deepen further, and teams building grassroots infrastructure will operate against the flow.
Bitcoin L2 faces challenges
Regarding this last point, Botanix hypothesizes that the user base it attracted primarily used Bitcoin as a store of value to generate profits.is a legitimate use case, but the transaction volume is low.
He added that BINK, a neobank application with self-custody and email login, was a strategic response to this problem. However, it appeared in the app store several weeks before the shutdown, and we didn’t have time to examine its impact.
this vision shared by other actors in the ecosystem. Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik recently stated that “many Bitcoin L2s are facing the same issue. Users prefer holding their BTC in wrappers like WBTC or using more mature EVM solutions on top of Ethereum and L2 rather than experimenting with new architectures with less liquidity.”
The closure will take effect from July 9, 2026. According to the statement, from that date onwards, the federation will purge any remaining BTC on the network and any assets that are not withdrawn will no longer be recoverable. The future of Bitcoin’s L2 depends on its ability to offer holders something that cannot be easily found outside of mainnet.
(Tag translation) Bitcoin (BTC)
