As indicated in the shutdown itinerary, some operations will be discontinued as of July 19, while the period for withdrawals concludes on August 26.

After approximately a year of raising $4.4 million to enhance non-fungible token (NFT) functionality, Solana’s Cardinal protocol has declared its shutdown due to financial circumstances. The announcement, made on Twitter, stated that all withdrawals need to be executed by August 26.

As an infrastructure facilitator, Cardinal Labs aimed at bolstering NFT applications on the Solana network by providing protocols and software development kits (SDKs) for staking, subscriptions, royalties, rentals, and trading.

According to the termination plan, a segment of operations will cease from July 19, including the creation of staking pools, token management, NFT rentals and rental extensions, new deposits, and social media handles. The two-month notice period concludes on August 26, by when all withdrawals must be completed.

In a Twitter statement, the Cardinal team noted that navigating through the tough macroeconomic landscape over the past 18 months was challenging. They further commented that although NFT-oriented products have gained some traction, they are largely confined to the cryptocurrency maximalist community.

In July 2022, Cardinal succeeded in securing $4.4 million in a seed funding round. The co-leaders of the round were crypto venture firm Protagonist and Solana Ventures, alongside Delphi Digital, Animoca Brands, CMS Holdings, and Alameda Research. Alameda Research, the sibling company of the now bankrupt FTX crypto exchange, made only a minimal contribution, and hence, did not contribute significantly to the protocol’s financial constraints.

An additional $750,000 was procured from Neo Ventures in pre-seed funding in 2021. Thus, Cardinal amassed a total of $5.2 million over 18 months, with more than 65,000 NFTs staked on the protocol as of July 2022.

Even amidst these challenging circumstances, the NFT market appears to be gradually maturing. According to a recent DappRadar report, the NFT market commenced the year on a positive note, with Q1 2023 being the best quarter since Q2 2022. Despite a decrease in trading volume in March, the overall market performance remained robust, attributable to fierce competition among NFT marketplaces.