These are fascinating times for the NFT industry. While crypto assets remain very volatile, interest in non-fungible tokens remains. Unfortunately, not all marketplaces will succeed, as Quix – built on Optimism – is winding down.
Never Heard Of Quix? You’re Not Alone
It is good to see a more competitive landscape among NFT marketplaces. Most activity occurs on Ethereum and through OpenSea, but other platforms need to rise. Blur is making a solid effort in recent weeks, although its long-term success remains unclear. Similar solutions must exist on other Layer-1 and Layer-2 solutions. Optimism, one of the popular scaling networks, has Quix.
More specifically, that situation may end, as the team announced they will shut down the company. A remarkable decision, as the project has plenty of community support and notes strong growth. Statistics by DappRadar confirm as much, as the NFT marketplace has solid user growth after an underwhelming start.
Between April and mid-September 2022, the platform remained relatively stagnant. That also impacted its overall volume and transaction count, resulting in few people noticing. However, things began to improve in mid-September, and all metrics have continued to increase since then. Yesterday, the platform interfaced with over 5,750 unique wallet addresses and saw over $52,200 in volume. Those are not stellar statistics, but they are not terrible either.
Moreover, Quix has plenty of activity every month. With over 127,000 UAW and more than $2 million in volume, it does alright for itself. In addition, the marketplace runs on Optimism and Arbitrum, two networks that have generated some solid headlines. However, it seems NFTs have yet to build any sustainable momentum across both networks.
Community Takeover Is Next
While Quix – the company – will shut down, the NFT marketplace will remain in place. The team wants the Optimism Collective to take the project into the next phase. There’s also a token grant to reward contributors and support community and platform maintenance until February 2023. What happens after that date is anyone’s guess. It will primarily depend on whether there is community interest.
In addition, the entire Quix NFT marketplace needs to be open-sourced. That process is underway with the help of the Optimism Foundation and should be completed soon. NFT collectors will be redirected to OpenSea for trading, whereas creators can continue to use Quix until January 16, 2023.
Seeing the company abandon ship in times of ongoing growth is a strange decision. Moreover, community feedback indicates they preferred a DAO approach or the team’s continuation. Open-sourcing the project and giving the community more control is always beneficial. The big question remains whether it will remain viable after February 2023.
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