Quick take:
- The crypto exchange company plans to shut down the NFT marketplace on February 27, 2025.
- Kraken said it made this decision because it wants to focus on other projects.
- Global NFT transaction volume spiked over the past two weeks to $83 million and $63 million (excluding wash trading) following Trump’s election win.
The non-fungible token industry has been on a decline for the last five months after the November 2023-June 2024 rally ended in Q2. Whilst there was a slight rebound in the week ending November 11 with over $83 million in non-wash trading volume and $63 million for the week ending November 18, some players are already beginning to rethink their strategy for the industry.
On Tuesday, Kraken announced it will be exiting the space come February 27, 2025. The crypto exchange company said users will no longer be able to list, bid or sell items after November 27, but will still be able to withdraw their assets.
According to the announcement, Kraken is doing this to focus on building other areas of its business, as it seeks to “free up resources for forthcoming projects.”
“We’ve made the decision to close our NFT marketplace so we can shift more resources into new products and services, including unannounced initiatives in-development,” a Kraken representative told The Block. “Clients have been informed of the changes and our team will support them as they move their NFTs to their Kraken Wallet or a self-custodial wallet of choice.”
This implies that the Kraken NFT marketplace will have been fully operational for barely two years, after launching on beta in November 2022.
Since recording a weekly non-wash trading NFT transaction volume of about $243 million in March, the industry has failed to break the $200 million mark, with sales falling to just over $26 million in the week ending October 28, according to a Dune dashboard prepared by Holdobby.
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