Solana NFT Marketplace Formfunction Will Close – Here’s When
Formfunction, the one-to-one NFT marketplace based on the Solana blockchain, announced its plans to shut down the platform amid NFT trading volume and price decline. The digital company announced on March 15, without pointing out the exact reason, that it would only be functional until March 29. It added that the platform reached this decision after “much discussion and careful consideration.”
Since its inception, Formfunction has suffered from the effects of NFT’s low trading volume and falling floor prices. The price of the SOL token has also dropped a lot, currently hovering around $20, compared to its January 2022 price of $100. This represents a drop of around 80% in SOL’s value. The NFT marketplace will close 13 months after launch in February 2022.
Formfunction introduces a new tool to help creators transfer NFTs
While announcing their decision to disband, Formfunction wrote in an official blog post;
We’re proud of what we’ve built to help creators make a living, and we’re grateful for the support and love we’ve found in this community. This was an extremely difficult decision; however, after much discussion and careful consideration, we have come to the conclusion that we cannot continue to operate Formfunction. To all the creators and collectors who have used Formfunction over the past year – you’re the ones who really made our platform shine.
As part of the unveiling, the platform is introducing a new tool for NFT creators to help them transfer NFTs from the platform. It will enable NFT creators to list or display their artwork on other NFT marketplaces. Even if the digital platform disables its services, it still ensures “full ownership of your NFTs (that’s the beauty of web3!).”
Daily unique buyers for Solana NFTs reduced by 50%
According to statistics provided by NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam, the number of daily unique buyers for Solana NFTs has also plunged over the past 12 months. The number is currently 5,400, almost half of the average recorded at the start of 2022.
Blue chip NFTs, a type of non-fungible token known for stability in their value, have also fallen more than 75% in dollar terms since February 2022 began, data from Solana NFT data aggregator SolanaFloor shows.
Head of Community and Marketing at Formfunction, known by the pseudonym Magellan◎, tweeted March 15 to comment on the disclosure. He highlighted that the co-founders and team were pivoting to a “new direction” that will likely be outside of the SOL and crypto industries.
Recently, the firm raised $4.7 million in a funding round that started immediately after launch. Variant Fund led the seed round, and other venture capital firms that participated are Canonical Crypto, Solana Ventures, OpenSea Ventures, Palm Tree Crew Crypto and Pear VC.
Although Formfunction decided to pull out, new industry players are entering the NFT space on the other hand. Amazon is one of the latest examples of it launching its NFTs next month to support its web3 gaming initiative.
Featured image from Pixabay and chart from TradingView.com
