On Tuesday, Solana Spaces, a company that creates storefronts with Solana themes, announced the shutdown of its company-owned and operated locations. This ambitious project has been halted by the protracted crypto winter.

According to the Solana Spaces Twitter account,

We’ve made the difficult decision to sunset our storefronts in NYC and Miami by the end of February, and to pivot our Solana onboarding efforts into digital goods like DRiP, our free NFT product with over 100k sign-ups.

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

The company behind Solana Spaces moves away from physical entrances to Web3 to onboard customers

Solana Spaces opened its first physical location at Hudson Yards in New York last summer. The goal of the store was to serve as a Web3 onboarding area for new users, where fans of Solana could purchase their preferred Solana branded merchandise. In August of that same year, a new store opened in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, which is renowned for being a center for the arts and culture.

The Solana businesses joined a growing list of IRL initiatives including Bored & Hungry, a fast food restaurant with a Los Angeles location and a Bored Ape Yacht Club motif.

According to Solana Spaces founder Vibhu Norby, “really, we were a startup that was chasing a road.” It goes without saying that this was one of the difficult decisions that the founders had to make at times. Norby said the team discovered more effective ways to integrate individuals from a product and financial basis, echoing his statement on Twitter.

The truth, in my opinion, is that we could have kept them operating, but we didn’t because it didn’t make as much sense as it had in the past, according to Norby.

The DRiP, an online platform that the business claims experienced the same amount of traffic as the physical stores, is now the focus, according to Norby. Collectors can get free Solana NFTs airdropped weekly by visiting the website DRiP. “DRiP onboards that same quantity every day, whereas our stores onboard between 500 and 1,000 individuals per week,” he said.

Norby claims the interest in DRiP astonished the team, with sign-ups for DRiP topping 50,000 as of this week, with another 175,000 on a queue to join. Being a founder with experience dealing with software companies and earlier social media platforms like MySpace, Norby felt that it would be foolish to not pursue that aggressively. Thus, me and a team from Spaces are utilizing that.

Norby asserts that Solana Spaces will continue to operate even though the locations in New York and Miami are closing. In November, “we open-sourced our stores,” he claimed. “We were thrilled to expand the Spaces worldwide.” Norby claims that one of these franchises will soon begin operations in India. Among Miami’s other clothing stores, Solana Spaces will continue to be less noticeable.

According to Norby, the Solana Spaces locations will shut down on February 28. He also mentioned that promotions and sales would be held in the days preceding the closure in the New York and Miami locations.

Norby tweeted, “I’ve ordered our retail crew to be super generous. ” He urged the Solana community to visit the stores and “grab some free high-quality Solana items, while supplies last and with some constraints,” asking them to post images on Twitter.

“So that we may all enjoy the last week of Solana Spaces together,” he stated.

🎙️ Had a long conversation with @vibhu about the @solanaspaces shutting down. We talked how it started, why it’s ending, and what’s next. 💜https://t.co/xPtNY89WNR

— Nick Frostbutter (@nickfrosty) February 23, 2023

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