A 'Bitcoin DeFi' project just shut down with a brutal post-mortem: Users just didn't care

TechShareShare this articleCopy linkX iconX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailA 'Bitcoin DeFi' project just shut down with a brutal post-mortem: Users just didn't care"It did not work," Botanix said. "At lest not in this market and not in this timeline."By Jamie Crawley|Edited by Aoyon AshrafUpdated Jun 10, 2026, 12:32 p.m. Published Jun 10, 2026, 12:00 p.m. 3 min readMake preferred on What to know: Bitcoin layer-2 network Botanix is being wound down a year after its mainnet went live. "It did not work," Botanix said. "At least not in this market and not in this timeline."This post-mortem may raise questions about the broader viability of the Bitcoin development sector, which includes other layer-2s like Rootstock and rollups like Citrea, during an extended period of muted sentiment in the crypto market.Bitcoin layer-2 network Botanix is being wound down a year after its mainnet went live. The project cited market conditions and broader indifference within the cryptocurrency industry towards establishing greater utility on the Bitcoin network, in a post on X on Tuesday."It did not work," Botanix summed up. "At least not in this market and not in this timeline."The aim of Botanix was to bring Ethereum-equivalent functionality to the Bitcoin network, allowing applications and smart contracts to be effectively copied and pasted onto the world's first blockchain. The project raised $14.4 million across two funding rounds in 2023 and 2024. Despite this, its total value locked (TVL) at closure was a mere $119,500, according to data from DeFiLlama.Botanix was one of many layer-2s and protocols to emerge in recent years, aiming to expand Bitcoin's utility and help it evolve beyond being just a store of value. The idea was that holders of bitcoin don't have to just let their asset sit idle and hope for price appreciation. They can also use decentralized finance to generate income on the side. This could involve staking tokens on other blockchain networks or using smart contra…

A 'Bitcoin DeFi' project just shut down with a brutal post-mortem: Users just didn't care

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