Roughly one year after securing $4.4 million in funding, the project has taken to Twitter to notify users about the need to finalize their withdrawals by August 26, signaling the initiation of the winding down procedure.
Navigating the macroeconomic environment
The Cardinal Protocol team has recently vocalized their setbacks in maneuvering through the complicated macroeconomic terrain since the project’s inception 18 months prior. They revealed that despite making progress with NFT-centric merchandise, their offerings remain largely contained within the crypto maximalist community.
As their operational deployments come to a close, it is worth noting that Cardinal Protocol will maintain their code as fully open source, emphasizing their commitment to the accessibility and value of open-source technology.
According to a Twitter thread, Cardinal protocol has announced that after a two-month notice period, they will initiate the forced withdrawal of all remaining deposits to ensure their return to the rightful depositor addresses.
This process will cover various assets, including staked tokens, unallocated stake pool rewards, and NFTs wrapped with token managers, which encompass rentals and other associated items. These steps are being taken as part of the winding down of operations and to facilitate the return of assets to their owners.
Initially known as an NFT infrastructure protocol facilitator, Cardinal protocol specialized in enabling conditional ownership of NFTs, offering features like royalty enforcement, rentals, subscriptions, and staking, all aimed at enhancing the utility of NFTs.
Their unique concept attracted $4.4 million in seed funding, led by Protagonist and Solana Ventures, with participation from investors such as Animoca Brands, Delphi Digital, CMS Holdings, and Alameda Research (FTX’s sister company).
Despite hopes for widespread adoption of blockchain technology across various industries, recent events like the Azuki ‘Elementals’ launch have raised concerns about the utility of NFTs, suggesting that progress in implementing blockchain technology may still be far off.
Cardinal Labs concluded their announcement by reiterating that the anticipated adoption of blockchain technology by industries outside of the crypto sector has yet to materialize as expected.
This raises questions about whether increased regulation will be the missing piece to achieve broader adoption, and whether Cardinal Labs’ efforts will eventually reach the industries they initially aimed to target.