GameStop, the star of the meme stock mania a couple of years ago, just announced the shutdown of its NFT marketplace effective on February 2, 2024. This comes only months following the brick-and-mortar video game retailer closure of its non-fungible token (NFT) wallet.
Market Uncertainty Blamed for Closure
Decrypt confirmed GameStop will no longer push its crypto gaming venture. So, just after closing its NFT wallet in August last year, it only makes sense that it’s also shutting the doors of its NFT marketplace. Why the business didn’t close them simultaneously wasn’t clear though.
The video game retailer cited “uncertainty” in the NFT and cryptocurrency sectors as an explanation for its move. Currently, the NFT marketplace of the company houses gaming NFTs and other digital collectibles on Immutable and Loopring, which are both Ethereum layer-2 (L2) solutions.
The news was delivered by GameStop via a pop-up on its NFT platform and an announcement on its official website. It read, “GameStop has decided to wind down our NFT marketplace due to the continuing regulatory uncertainty of the crypto space.”
GameStop NFT Marketplace
GameStop hatched a plan to enter the NFT market back when these digital collectibles were going hot back in 2021. By January 2022, the hiring of a 20-member team set the wheels in motion for its NFT marketplace.
This was followed by a partnership with Immutable and a grant of $100 million in the platform’s native IMX token in favor of the video game company. However, GameStop dumped $47 million worth of the tokens it just acquired in the market after the announcement of the collaboration pumped prices up. As a result, the price of the coin slumped by 23% on the succeeding day.
The controversies continued when GameStop terminated an undisclosed number of its staff days before the launch of its NFT marketplace. The company’s CEO Matt Furlong was also relieved from his duties by the time Immutable X gaming NFTs went live in its marketplace.
Adding to its series of misfortunes was the resignation of GameStop CFO Diana Saadeh-Jajeh in 2022. The exec notably played a crucial role in the NFT and crypto initiatives of the video game establishment.
The shaky turn of events surrounding the platform eventually led to its delisting from DappRadar. GameStop’s NFT marketplace was listed on the decentralized app (Dapp) store in September 2022. Meanwhile, the NFT marketplace’s official X (formerly Twitter) account with over a hundred thousand followers appears to be inactive since September last year and it is yet to post about its folding as of this writing.
What Happens to All NFT Purchases?
Since the NFT and digital collectibles on GameStop’s NFT marketplace were minted on the blockchain, they can still be found and traded via other compatible platforms.