Author: Nancy, PANews

As the NFT market hits rock bottom, Starbucks announced the termination of its Odyssey NFT program, which has been in operation for less than two years. Meanwhile, Polygon Labs was reported to have paid $4 million to Starbucks to fund the loyalty rewards program, thereby beating out other competitors and becoming Starbucks' partner. The sudden termination of the NFT program by Starbucks may be related to low user participation and the downturn in the NFT market.

Plan to Launch New Member Experience, Most Odyssey NFTs Plummet

Last week, Starbucks announced the termination of its testing-phase Odyssey NFT program and the imminent closure of its Discord community on March 31. After the closure of the Odyssey NFT program, users can still trade on Nifty Gateway.

Although Starbucks has not provided a specific explanation for the closure of Odyssey, Steve Kaczynski, the head of the Odyssey community, seemed to hint at the reasons for the program's closure in an interview with TechCrunch, stating, "The NFT field may have experienced a significant decline from historical highs, and the Odyssey NFT program only attracted over 58,000 active users, but most of them are non-Web3 natives."

Launched in the second half of 2022, the Starbucks Odyssey aimed to integrate the company's loyalty rewards program with NFTs to enhance customer experience and has released multiple themed NFTs, many of which quickly sold out. However, with the bearish trend in the NFT market, Starbucks' 27 Odyssey NFTs experienced widespread and severe price declines, with monthly trading volumes only in the hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Data from Nifty Gateway shows that as of March 21, the floor price of "The First Store Collection Stamp" has dropped by over 82% from its $100 issuance price, "The Starbucks® Green Apron Stamp" has seen an 86% decline from its issuance price, "First Store Collection" has dropped by 82%, "Holiday Cheer Stamp" has dropped by over 72.6% from its historical average price, and "Going Places Journey Stamp" has plummeted by over 98% from its issuance price. However, some NFT series have not experienced price declines, such as "The Siren Collection Stamp," which has seen a 30% increase from its issuance price.

However, Starbucks has revealed that it will launch a new member experience in April. At the same time, Steve Kaczynski also stated that Starbucks is seeking new ways to explore the value of its brand and loyalty program and will expand the rewards program in 2024.

Polygon Labs Provided $4 Million Sponsorship and Facilitated Connections

Polygon Labs significantly increased its visibility through its collaboration with Starbucks. Starbucks publicly stated that the main reasons for the collaboration were Polygon's low transaction fees and scalability advantages.

It is reported that the collaboration between Polygon and Starbucks was facilitated by the digital collectibles company Forum3, whose co-founder Adam Brotman was a former Chief Digital Officer at Starbucks and later became a special advisor to Odyssey. According to CoinDesk, Adam Brotman had discussions with Polygon, Solana, and others in early 2022, ultimately choosing Polygon for technical reasons.

Unlike most companies that pay service fees to technology companies, Polygon Labs was required to pay $4 million to Starbucks for the establishment of Starbucks Odyssey, which also enabled Polygon to win the collaboration over three other blockchains. Market speculation suggests that if large brands like Starbucks choose Polygon as their entry platform into the crypto space, it may attract more customer groups to follow suit.

It is worth mentioning that Polygon Ventures participated in Forum3's $10 million seed round financing announced in 2022. Currently, the Forum3 website indicates that the company, which used to focus on branded digital collectibles, has transitioned to the artificial intelligence track.

According to a source familiar with Polygon Labs, the significant deals that Polygon Labs established with companies like Nike and Starbucks were remnants of the previous leadership's strategy. It is reported that Ryan Wyatt, the former president of Polygon Labs, led the collaboration with Starbucks, but left after a senior management reshuffle at Polygon Labs in 2023. With the departure of members involved in these collaborations and Polygon's shift towards the ZK track, the future focus may be more on technology rather than brand marketing.

The departure of large traditional platforms like Starbucks from the NFT space is not an isolated case. In the past, companies such as GameStop, Meta, and eBay have closed or downsized teams due to factors such as the prospects of NFT development and regulations, indicating that NFTs still face significant challenges to sustainably enter broader markets.

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