Solana Spaces Set to Close Stores in NY and Miami
- The Solana Spaces real-life stores in New York and Miami are being shut down, as per a note shared by founder Vibhu Norby.
- The lack of interest shown by customers and the bearish market has also played its role in the closure.
- “We’ve made the difficult decision to sunset our stores in NYC and Miami by the end of February,” Norby stated.
- The team will now focus Solana onboarding efforts into digital products like DRiP, a mobile-first trading platform built on top of Serum.
The Solana (SOL) blockchain became one of the most popular chains in the crypto market during the 2021 bull run but in 2022, the crypto coin was pushed out of the top 10 crypto coins in the market while the TVL of the blockchain also dropped significantly. A number of projects also left the blockchain, which was compared to Ethereum (ETH) at the peak of its popularity. Additionally, it was also announced that the real-life stores called Solana Spaces will be closed due to a lack of popularity.
According to the announcement from Solana Spaces shared via social media platform Twitter on Feb. 21, along with a note from founder Vibhu Norby, two SOL-themed and community driven stores in New York and Miami will be closed due to a lack of interest shown by customers, and the bearish market has also played a role in the same.
“We’ve made the difficult decision to sunset our stores in NYC and Miami by the end of February, and to pivot our Solana onboarding efforts into digital products like DRiP, our free NFT product with more than 100k sign-ups,” said Norby.
It is crucial to note that the Solana Spaces project was founded a year ago by Norby with funding from the Solana Foundation, the organization responsible for the development of the blockchain, and support from Phantom and others. Norby stated that his team was the “greatest startup retail team ever assembled, and we executed at the highest of levels.”
Additionally, Norby stated that in the past 8 months, the stores hosted almost 75,000 people and helped thousands walk away with Phantom wallets and Solana merchandise. Moreover, Solana Spaces also designed a Web3 onboarding experience from scratch, in multiple cities, via their own merch, 30 collaborations, and almost 50 events.
Norby added that his stores onboard between 500 and 1000 people per week, while the DRiP Protocol, a mobile-first trading platform built on top of Serum, onboards these many people each day.
“Over the last 2 months, it became increasingly clear to me that we were at an inflection point with our stores and our digital products, and a few weeks ago we made the call to focus our ongoing efforts on DRiP. More to come on the plan for DRiP soon, including rebranding this Twitter account,” Norby stated while adding, “With this decision, we are saying goodbye to our US-based stores.”
Norby confirmed that his team is in the process of identifying a place for people to pick up Solana merchandise and participate in other real-life activities in NYC and Miami. The Solana Spaces founder further added that this is the last week for people to come into the stores and pick up their merchandise.
He concluded that “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.” As reported earlier by Bitnation, Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder of the blockchain, stated that his team is working towards making the chain lightning fast, secure, and scalable.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
