• Solana’s Cardinal protocol is shutting down operations due to economic conditions.
• The protocol raised $4.4 million for improving NFT utility, but was unable to make progress in the crypto maximalist community.
• Despite the shutdown, the NFT market had a good start in 2023 and is steadily maturing.
Solana’s Cardinal Protocol Shuts Down
Solana’s Cardinal protocol is winding down operations due to economic conditions, nearly a year after raising $4.4 million to improve nonfungible tokens (NFT) utility. According to an announcement on Twitter, withdrawals should be made by Aug. 26.
Closing Schedule
Based on the closing schedule, part of the operations will be halted on July 19, including staking pool creations, token management, NFT rentals and rental extensions, social media handles and new deposits. Withdrawals must be completed by Aug. 26 when the two-month notice period ends.
Funding Raised
In July 2022, Cardinal raised $4.4 million in a seed funding round co-led by crypto venture firm Protagonist and Solana Ventures, along with Animoca Brands, Delphi Digital, CMS Holdings and Alameda Research, the sister company of now bankrupted crypto exchange FTX. According to a spokesperson for Cardinal, Alameda’s investment was “a very small piece of the round” not contributing to the protocol’s financial difficulties.. Another $750k was raised from Neo Ventures in pre-seed funding in 2021; making total funding of up to $5.2 million over 18 months with over 65000 NFTs staked on the protocol as of July 2022 .
NFT Market Slowly Maturing
Despite challenging times ,the NFT market seems slowly maturing . According to a recent report from DappRadar ,the NFT market had a good start to this year ,with Q1 2023 being the best quarter since Q2 2022 . Although March saw some significant drops ,overall activity remained stable throughout most months so far this year .
Conclusion
The closure of Solana’s Cardinal Protocol highlights how difficult it can be for projects that rely heavily on cryptocurrency markets even with significant funding secured . Despite these challenges ,it appears that overall activity within the NFT space continues its steady growth – indicating that there may still be potential within this sector going forward .