The NFT market is going through its worst period in the past two years, mainly due to economic and legal challenges in the cryptocurrency market. The release of repetitive collections of NFTs, rug-pull incidents in NFT projects, and hacking attacks in Layer-2 ecosystems have caused users to turn away from the NFT market. We have compiled the developments in the NFT market from the past week for you.
NFT-Based Project Comes to an End
Bold plans for an NFT-based restaurant and private members’ lounge in San Francisco came to an abrupt end after the company behind the project halted construction due to challenging macroeconomic factors. The two venues were being built in Salesforce Park and would have been named “Sho Restaurant” and “Sho Club Sky Lounge.”
Only those who owned Sho Club NFTs, ranging from $7,500 to $300,000, would have had access to the latter and would have been offered access to other hospitality offerings by Sho Group in the future. Joshua Sigel, CEO of Sho Group, confirmed in an interview with San Francisco-focused news site SFGATE on September 7th that construction of the project was no longer feasible and that the company had terminated its lease agreement in July. The CEO continued:
“Despite strong demand for the concept and millions of dollars in pre-sales and reserved memberships, we could not address many concerns raised by potential investors, most of which were related to the future of SF and the increase in construction costs.”
Sigel emphasized the challenging macro factors that made construction costs too expensive, including labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, geopolitical uncertainties, and inflation. Sigel stated that Sho Group had issued refunds to everyone who purchased their NFTs.
Binance NFT Ends Support for Polygon
Binance‘s NFT marketplace announced that it would soon end its support for Polygon-based NFTs, but did not provide a clear explanation for the decision. Binance NFT stated in a blog post on September 8th that it would end The Sandbox NFT Staking Program at the end of this month, citing the need to streamline product offerings on the platform. The program allows users to stake their Polygon-based Land NFTs from The Sandbox to earn SAND token rewards, but it will officially close on September 26th.
Users’ NFTs will not be automatically staked and will be returned to their spot wallets. As part of the program’s closure, Binance NFT also stated that support for the Polygon network would end on the same day and users would have until December 31st to withdraw all their Polygon NFTs from the market. The only information provided by Binance NFT regarding the move was that “further details will be provided to affected users at a later date.”
Reddit Launches NFL NFTs
NFT-friendly social media platform Reddit has released NFL-themed NFT avatar collections to celebrate the start of the new NFL season. The collection was launched on September 7th and covers all 32 teams.
The NFTs are sold for $25 each and depict the Reddit Snoo mascot wearing various uniforms in the artwork. There are 500 NFTs available per team, but at the time of writing, most sets still have over 400 NFTs remaining, indicating that there is no rush to acquire them yet.
Rumble Kong League x Stance
NFT project Rumble Kong League has released plant-based basketball socks as part of its partnership with NBA star Paul George and popular sock, underwear, and t-shirt brand Stance. These socks are part of a broader collaboration project called Hyper Socks, which will eventually release a 3-on-3 basketball game with play-to-earn features.
In the initial stage of the project, tokenized socks that could be used in the upcoming game were sold. On September 8th, the Rumble Kong League team announced the launch of the second phase by selling 250 boxes of physical Stance Sox featuring cartoon gorilla avatar-themed designs. Considering Stance’s ties to the NBA and other professional sports leagues, this partnership represents a significant mainstream collaboration for the project.
