Kraken Bids Farewell To NFTs – Is The Digital Art Boom Over?

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As a seasoned analyst with over two decades of experience in the tech and crypto industries, I have witnessed numerous changes and adaptations in this dynamic landscape. The recent announcement by Kraken to close its NFT marketplace next year comes as an unexpected development, especially considering the company’s significant influence in the NFT space.

A digital currency company intends to temporarily shut down its Non-Fungible Token (NFT) trading platform around the beginning of next year. This move could potentially create significant ripples within the NFT industry.

Experts are taken aback by Kraken’s recent decision, leading to speculation about the potential direction of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) given Kraken’s significant role in this token market.

Closing Down On February 2025

On February 27, 2025, the cryptocurrency platform Kraken chose to close its marketplace, saying farewell to all its loyal customers.

Starting on November 27th, significant parts of the crypto company’s NFT marketplace – including bidding, listing, and selling NFTs – will be discontinued. This is a step towards winding down the marketplace, which plans to fully close by the first quarter of 2025.

Despite some changes, the crypto platform has made it clear that while several of its services will cease to exist, users have until February 27, 2025, to withdraw their funds without issue.

Kraken, the company, is closing its NFT (Non-Fungible Token) marketplace, a move made approximately two years following its initial launch. The reason given for this decision is that they are reallocating their resources towards developing new items and offerings instead.

— Bloomberg (@business) November 26, 2024

Kraken Eyes Developing New Products

As a crypto investor, I’ve learned that Kraken’s representative has made it clear about their plans for the upcoming year regarding their marketplace. The future is now on the horizon.

The Kraken official said that it was one of the difficult choices they have to make considering how much the NFT marketplace has been part of the crypto firm.

The representative clarified that shutting their cryptocurrency marketplace was a step towards discovering fresh opportunities. They also mentioned that the aim is to create innovative new offerings and services.

Additionally, Kraken has made certain to keep all its clients apprised about the current updates, and they’ve mentioned that their support team will help users of the NFT marketplace with moving their assets to different wallets or the Kraken self-storage wallet.


Workforce Cuts

Approximately a month ago, we received news that the NFT marketplace was closing down, following a series of events. About a month prior to this, the cryptocurrency platform had reduced its staff and brought in a new co-CEO.

This year in October, Kraken chose to cut down their staff by 15% following the dismissal of approximately 400 employees. They explained this action as a necessary step in their company’s organizational overhaul.

Simultaneously, the cryptocurrency platform brought on board a fresh co-CEO, experienced Silicon Valley figure Arjun Sethi, to work alongside Dave Ripley in overseeing the company’s operations as it aims to grow into the world’s leading cryptocurrency platform.

Stagnation

This year, analysts noticed a decline in the prosperity of Non-Fungible Token (NFT) markets, with June being one of their poorest performing months on record.

The crypto analysis tool known as Artemis reported that the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market saw a drop of about 50% in June, which is similar to the substantial decrease experienced by popular digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana during the same period.

Later on this year, Paul Thomas, who is both the CEO and founder of Somnia, pointed out a decrease in excitement around digital collectibles. He suggested that the potential usefulness of NFTs could be why their popularity seems to be waning.

Thomas added another problem of NFTs is the “lack of originality”.

Over the past few months, well-known figures within the cryptocurrency realm have been selling their Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), including billionaire Mark Cuban.

Looking on the optimistic side, Techreport forecasts that the NFT market may well surpass a value of $2.8 billion by 2028, with a potential user base of 14.67 million this year.

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2024-11-28 18:12