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Nearly a year after raising $4.4 million to improve non-fungible token (NFT) usability, Solana’s Cardinal Protocol is ceasing operations due to economic circumstances. Withdrawals must be made by August 26, according to an announcement on Twitter.
Cardinal Labs was an infrastructure provider dedicated to supporting NFT use cases on the Solana Network by offering protocols and software development kits (SDKs) for staking, rental, subscription, royalties and trading.
Hello everyone, we have some unfortunate news to share
After much deliberation, we have decided to begin the process of phasing out our protocol. Let’s dive into it ⬇️
— Cardinal (@cardinal_labs) 28 June 2023
Based on the closing schedule, some portion of operations will be halted on July 19, including staking pool creation, token management, NFT rental and rental extension, social media handles, and new deposits. Withdrawals must be completed by August 26, when the two-month notice period expires.
“We have done our best to weather this incredibly difficult macroeconomic environment since we began construction 18 months ago, but like many others, it has been challenging,” the Cardinal’s team said on Twitter. Despite some genuine attraction, they are “stuck in the context of the crypto maximalist community.”
In July 2022, Cardinal raised $4.4 million in a seed funding round co-led by crypto venture firms Protagonist and Solana Ventures, along with Animoca Brands, Delphi Digital, CMS Holdings and Alameda Research – an affiliate of now-defunct crypto exchange FTX. According to a spokesman for the cardinal, Almeida’s investment was “a very small part of the round”, not contributing to the protocol’s financial difficulties.
Raised another $750,000 in pre-seed funding in 2021 from Neo Ventures. In total, Cardinal secured $5.2 million in funding over the course of 18 months, including over 65,000 NFTs on the protocol through July 2022.
Despite challenging times, the NFT market seems to be slowly maturing. According According to a recent report from DappsRadar, the NFT market started the year on a good note, with Q1 2023 being the best quarter since Q2 2022. Although March saw a decrease in trading volume, the overall performance was strong due to intense competition among the NFT markets. ,
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