Nike was one of the biggest traditional brands to co-sign the Web3 revolution when it acquired digital fashion and avatar startup RTFKT in 2021. Three years later, the firm is shutting down.
RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”) said Monday that it will “wind down operations” after a series of high-profile projects, including CryptoKicks NFT and physical sneakers with Nike, along with the Clone X NFT avatars with artist Takashi Murakami.
The anime-inspired Clone X avatars were once a hot commodity, starting at a price of $63,000 worth of ETH back in 2022. Now they’re trading hands for less than $1,000 a pop on secondary marketplaces. Meanwhile, Nike’s separate .Swoosh platform on Ethereum scaling network Polygon isn’t planning on launching any further NFTs.
After the last couple years of flagging enthusiasm around NFTs, it’s no surprise to see another big brand bail. But interestingly, the departure comes right as major NFT projects are gaining momentum again, with CryptoPunks, Bored Apes, and other collections rising in both price and trading volume.
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