NFT Startup Recur Shuts Down Despite $50M Raise in 2021

Non-fungible token (NFT) platform Recur announced it is shutting down operations less than two years after securing $50 million in funding from notable names, including Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, Gemini founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and Gary Vaynerchuk.

In a tweet late Friday, Recur stated that its decision to shut down was due to recent unfavorable market conditions.

“This decision has not been an easy one. However, unforeseen challenges and shifts in the business landscape have made it increasingly difficult for us to continue providing the level of service and dedication that we have always strived to maintain,” the company tweeted.

Recur Phases Out Core Services 

Recur stated it would be phasing out its core services, including NFT withdrawals, stablecoin cash-outs, and collectible trading over the next several months. As part of the development, the platform stated that as of August 18, the main transactional functionality, such as primary and secondary sales of NFTs, has been disabled. Furthermore, new user account creation has been disabled, and every other site function will be completely shut down by November 16.

The company stated that it is also migrating the metadata and media for its NFTs to the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), a decentralized storage protocol that enables data to be retrievable. While it is gradually phasing out its services, Recur noted that users could continue withdrawing their NFTs to on-chain wallets and cash out any redeemable balance until November 16.

NFT Market Slumps

The decision to shut down comes nearly two years after Recur said it was worth $333 million after raising $50 million in series A funding led by DIGITAL, a metaverse investment platform. 

The NFT market has been in a downtrend this year, with sales volumes and prices of digital collectibles seeing significant declines. According to on-chain data aggregator CoinGecko, NFT sales volume has dropped from $4.84 billion in the first quarter of 2023 to $3.15 billion in the second quarter of this year, marking a 35% drop quarter on quarter.