Solana Spaces has announced the closure of its Solana-based retail stores in New York and Miami from February 28, 2023, onwards. It is believed that the stores failed to onboard the expected number of users, as reported by Cointelegraph.
According to Cointelegraph, on February 21, 2023, Solana disclosed a note from founder Vibhu Norby mentioning the factors for store shutdowns. Norby stated that the company endured an “inflection point” with the stores, resulting in them changing its investment focus to “DRiP,” the firm’s new non-fungible token (NFT) artwork airdrop platform. Experts believe that the initiative didn’t go as planned.
“Our endowed mission from day one was to experiment with new and disruptive models to bring people to Web3, and to serve the community on behalf of the Solana Foundation. As I told people often, as awesome as the stores were, if we found a more efficient way to bring people into Solana, we would throw our efforts at that,” Norby highlighted.
Based on the information by Cointelegraph, the stores provided facilities to customers such as in-person wallet onboarding tutorials, earning rewards, merchandise shopping and attending events. Reportedly, the venture was backed by Solana Foundation, Solana-based wallet provider Phantom and native crypto exchange Orca. Sources suggest that the shutdowns are happening due to crypto winter implications.
(With insights from Cointelegraph)