The ecosystem-focused Solana Spaces store announced the closure of venues in New York and Miami.
The following is a note from our founder, @vibhu.
Dear @solanaspaces community,
We’ve made the difficult decision to sunset our stores in NYC and Miami by the end of February, and to pivot our Solana onboarding efforts into digital products like DRiP, our free NFT product with… https://t.co/kjNu9Ay4Gk
— Solana Spaces (@solanaspaces) February 21, 2023
“We have made the difficult decision to close our stores in New York and Miami by the end of February and to shift our Solana onboarding efforts toward digital products”
— the statement said.
The founder and CEO Vibhu Norbi explained that the decision was made “a few weeks ago.” He said that the physical stores did not attract as many users as originally expected.
“Our primary mission from day one has been to experiment with new and breakthrough models to attract people to Web3, and serve the community on behalf of the Solana Foundation,” — he noted.
Norbi added that the “tipping point” with the stores forced a shift in focus to the NFT platform DRiP:
“While our stores attract between 500 and 1000 people per week, DRiP serves the same number of customers EVERY DAY.”
On July 28, 2022, Solana Spaces opened in the Hudson Yards shopping mall on Manhattan (New York, USA). The second location opened in Wynwood (Miami). Over their lifespan, the venues attracted 75,000 visitors, Norbi said.
The team behind the Star Atlas game on Solana expressed regret at the decision. However, developers backed DRiP’s development plans.
We’re sad to hear the news of @solanaspaces closing their Miami and NYC stores ? The events that Star Atlas attended and hosted there were beyond incredible!?
Even so, we can’t wait to see what comes from their pivot to DRiP! https://t.co/4voal4yzfC pic.twitter.com/bXV8PKG6LE
— Star Atlas (@staratlas) February 21, 2023
Earlier, Solana Labs unveiled the Saga smartphone based on the Android operating system. It is a custom version of the device from OSOM with built-in cryptocurrency wallet features.
In January 2023, Solana Labs began taking pre-orders for Saga from users in 33 countries.