Starbucks suddenly halted its Odyssey plan: its NFTs were seriously broken, and Polygon once sponsored US$4 million

As the NFT market plunges to freezing point, Starbucks announced that its Odyssey NFT program, launched less than two years ago, is ending. Meanwhile, Polygon Labs was revealed to have paid Starbucks $4 million to fund the loyalty rewards program, beating out other competitors to become a Starbucks partner. The sudden end of Starbucks' NFT program may be related to many reasons such as low user participation and the sluggish NFT market.

Plans to launch new membership experience, most Odyssey NFTs severely broken

Last week, Starbucks announced that they plan to end the testing phase of the Odyssey NFT project on March 31 and close their Discord community. Although the Odyssey NFT project will be shut down, users can still continue to trade on Nifty Gateway.

Although Starbucks officials did not clearly state the reason for the closure of Odyssey, Odyssey community leader Steve Kaczynski seemed to reveal some information in an interview with TechCrunch. He noted that the NFT space may be experiencing a larger decline, which may be one of the reasons for Odyssey's closure. According to him, while the Odyssey NFT program has gained participation from more than 58,000 active users, most of them are not Web3 natives.

As a rewards program launched in the second half of 2022, Starbucks Odyssey aims to combine the company’s loyalty reward program with NFTs to enhance customer experience, and has launched multiple themed NFTs in the past, many of which have gone online It sold out quickly. However, as the NFT market took a turn for the worse, Starbucks' 27 Odyssey NFTs experienced widespread and serious breaches, and the transaction volume within the month was only hundreds and thousands of dollars.

Nifty Gateway data shows that as of March 21, for example, the floor price of "The First Store Collection Stamp" has dropped by more than 82% from the issue price of US$100, and " The Starbucks® Green Apron Stamp" has dropped 86% from its issue price, "First Store Collection" has dropped 82%, "Holiday Cheer Stamp" has dropped more than 72.6% from its historical average price, and "Going Places Journey Stamp" has dropped 82% from its issue price. The drop exceeded 98% and so on. However, there are still some series of NFTs that have not yet broken through. For example, "The Siren Collection Stamp" still has a 30% increase from the issue price.

However, Starbucks also announced that it will launch a new membership experience in April. Meanwhile, Starbucks is working to explore new ways to enhance its brand value and loyalty program, with plans to expand its rewards program in 2024, Steve Kaczynski said.

Polygon Labs has provided sponsorship of US$4 million and invested in matchmakers

Polygon Labs’ visibility has been significantly enhanced due to its cooperation with Starbucks. Starbucks has publicly stated that the main reason for the cooperation between the two parties is Polygon's low transaction fees and excellent scalability.

It is reported that Polygon’s cooperation with Starbucks was brought together through the digital collectibles company Forum3. The company’s co-founder Adam Brotman is the former chief digital officer of Starbucks and later became a special advisor to Odyssey. CoinDesk quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Adam Brotman talked with Polygon, Solana and others in early 2022, and finally selected Polygon for technical reasons.

But unlike most companies that pay technology companies for services, Polygon Labs was required to pay Starbucks $4 million as part of the cost of building Starbucks Odyssey. This fee also allowed Polygon to compete with Three other blockchains competed to win the collaboration. Regarding the reasons for sponsorship, the market also speculates that if large brands such as Starbucks choose Polygon as their launch platform to participate in the encryption field, it may attract more customer groups to follow suit.

It is worth mentioning that Polygon Ventures also participated in the US$10 million seed round of financing announced by Forum3 in 2022. Currently, Forum3’s official website shows that this company, which once focused on branded digital collectibles, has transformed into the artificial intelligence track.

Separately, Polygon Labs’ big deals to forge high-profile partnerships with companies like Nike and Starbucks are remnants of past leadership strategies, according to a person familiar with the matter. It is reported that Ryan Wyatt, the former president of Polygon Labs, led the cooperation with Starbucks, but he left after the senior management reshuffle of Polygon Labs in 2023. As the members involved in these collaborations leave and Polygon turns to the ZK track, the future focus will be more on technology than on brand marketing.

Large traditional platforms such as Starbucks are not alone in leaving NFT. In the past, GameStop, Meta, eBay, etc. all closed or laid off their teams due to factors such as NFT development prospects and supervision. This also means that if NFT wants to move towards a more sustainable future, The broad market still faces significant challenges.

The above is the detailed content of Starbucks suddenly halted its Odyssey plan: its NFTs were seriously broken, and Polygon once sponsored US$4 million. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!