Tessera and Escher will cease all operations
In a surprise announcement today, Andy Chorlian, co-founder and CEO of Fractional Token Company, revealed that Web3 platforms Tessera and Escher would begin slowly winding down operations in the near future.
Launched in 2021 under the name Fractional Art, Tessera made a name for itself as a Web3 service specializing in fractional ownership of NFTs, allowing fans to own a piece of blue-chip NFTs like Bored Apes or CryptoPunks. The platform also runs Nounlets, an experimental NFT initiative that allows for collective ownership of a single noun. Launched in March 2023, Escher was designed as a marketplace that allows users to not only view all of an artist’s work in one place, but also discover published NFTs for art.
The end of an era
In a heartfelt message, Chorlian expressed gratitude to everyone who supported the company and promised to ensure that the liquidation process would be carried out in a responsible manner. He also emphasized that the team took this step while they were in a financial position to do so smoothly, with the aim of focusing on supporting their employees during the transition.
“We spent a long time carefully analyzing possible market scenarios, our company structure and our financial situation and decided that this was the best choice for our team and investors,” Chorlian, a well-known Web3 figure and co-host of We do a little podcast, wrote in the Twitter announcement. “When we really dug into the financial model for Escher, we saw that the goals we needed to achieve to achieve profitability—compared to the time and resource costs of scaling there—just didn’t add up or make good business sense.”
The announcement came as a shock to many in the NFT community, who expressed their gratitude and sympathy during Chorlian’s tweet. Fractional Art was seen as a major innovation by the wider Web3 community when it was first launched.
Fractional Art (Tessera) quickly gained a reputation for innovation after its launch, allowing multiple individuals to jointly own a single NFT. As of August 2022, over 70,000 users collectively owned more than 6,500 NFTs on the platform, including a zombie CryptoPunk worth $3.46 million at the time of purchase. Tessera also raised money for social causes, including an $8 million fundraiser for Ukraine, and served as the birthplace of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) such as Doge NFT and FreeRossDAO.
Grieving Escher
The news is especially bitter for fans of Chorlian’s work who were looking forward to the future of Escher. In April, Chorlian took to Twitter to share his vision for the platform, build a Web3 destination that will act as an aggregator of the entirety of an artist’s work. Starting with Editions, an NFT drop mechanic that gained immense popularity towards the end of 2022, the platform served as a one-stop shop for all of a participating artist’s work. The platform featured work from the likes of Dave Krugman, Summer Wagner, Postwook, Alpha Centauri Kid, Bryan Brinkman and more.
We hope to make showrooms the ultimate place to discover, view and collect an artist’s entire portfolio of work
Over time, Escher will allow artists to easily and creatively express themselves through complete aggregation, customization of showrooms and some fun tools
— andy (@andy8052) 21 April 2023
In Chorlian’s wind-down announcement, he emphasized that he is not going anywhere, assuring his followers that he will continue to live in the space and build during what is increasingly being seen as the coldest crypto winter in years.
“I’ve been reflecting a lot on all my mistakes over the past few years as a first-time entrepreneur,” he said, “and will share those thoughts at another time.”
