Recently, Starbucks announced that it will halt its NFT product, Starbucks Odyssey plan. The official website shows that the plan will end at the end of March, and users who hold it can continue to trade on the Nifty Gateway platform.
Having come a long way from the deep bear market of the cryptocurrency market, Starbucks, as a physical brand, has successfully entered the Web3 field. However, why did it suddenly stop the Odyssey NFTs as the cryptocurrency market is about to warm up?
Starbucks has not given a specific explanation for this decision. It only provided a vague answer on the FAQ page of its official website: "Starbucks Odyssey Beta must end to prepare for the next step in our development plan."
In 2022, Brady Brewer, the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Starbucks, expressed full confidence in the Odyssey plan, stating that "using Web3 technology will allow our members to have experiences and ownership that were previously unattainable." At that time, despite the bear market in the cryptocurrency market, the floor price and sales volume of Odyssey NFTs continued to rise, and the experiential activities associated with the plan continued to innovate.
After only a year, this plan dedicated to improving Starbucks' user loyalty system has come to a halt. A search of related NFT prices reveals that the majority of the Odyssey NFT series are in a state of breaking. This may be one of the reasons why Starbucks has pressed the pause button.
Starbucks is not the first traditional brand to exit the NFT market. Game retailer GameStop and South Korean telecommunications company KT have also recently scaled back their NFT product offerings.
Most Odyssey NFTs are in a state of breaking
Last Friday, Starbucks announced that it will end its Odyssey Beta customer loyalty program.
If you open Starbucks Odyssey and still intend to join the program, a farewell message will pop up on the page: "Starbucks Odyssey Beta will end on March 31, 2024." Subsequently, the page will guide you to the registration page of Starbucks Rewards.
Odyssey official page notifies the end of the plan at the end of March
This means that the Web3 product Starbucks Odyssey, which was once intended to improve member loyalty, will be terminated, and the long-established Web2 member system "Starbucks Rewards" will shed its Web3 facade and return to its original form.
As for the reason, Starbucks explained on the Starbucks Odyssey FAQ page: "Odyssey Beta must end to prepare for the next step in our development plan." This explanation seems to hint at something, as Starbucks is "working hard to provide a place for members to connect in the future."
What this future place is exactly remains unknown. Some netizens joked on social media, "Could it be the metaverse?" Others speculated that it might mean a "gaming system." Starbucks has not provided a clear response to the speculation from the outside world.
For users who already hold Starbucks Odyssey NFTs, Starbucks stated that they can still continue to trade on the NFT trading platform Nifty Gateway.
This well-known coffee brand's foray into NFTs began at the end of 2022. The Odyssey plan was touted as an expanded version of Starbucks' existing reward system, offering discounts to users who purchase coffee and other products in-store, increasing interaction, and providing rewards such as NFT stamps, beverage making courses, and even the opportunity for lucky winners to visit coffee farms in Costa Rica.
At the time, the Odyssey plan launched a closed beta version on the Polygon blockchain, attracting attention from the Web3 market. To date, the Odyssey plan has released 27 different themed series of NFTs, with the total sales of stamp NFTs on Nifty Gateway amounting to $3.4 million.
In March 2023, the Odyssey plan released its first limited edition NFT stamp, with 2,000 Siren Collection NFTs selling out in less than 20 minutes, causing the official website to become inaccessible due to high traffic. In August 2023, the "Green Apron" NFT series went online and rose by 23% within 15 hours. It's worth noting that at that time, the NFT market was still in a continuous "deep bear" phase.
Both traditional industries and the Web3 field are watching to see if this traditional brand can improve its physical business processes with Web3 technology and related products. Starbucks Chief Marketing Officer Brady Brewer also confidently stated that the plan would bring "revolutionary Web3 experiences" to Starbucks members.
Now, as the cryptocurrency market warms up, Starbucks has chosen to halt the Odyssey plan?
According to overseas media Techcrunch, Starbucks community leader Steve Kaczynski once stated that the NFT market may have experienced a significant decline from its historical peak, and therefore hopes to attract fans in new ways. He believes that the brand and loyalty program can still add value.
Indeed, the floor price of Starbucks' popular NFT series is currently facing a market downturn.
The floor price of the Odyssey NFT series has mostly fallen below the sale price
A review of the Odyssey NFTs reveals that, except for the Siren series, the NFTs from other series have fallen below their sale prices, with most prices shrinking by over 90%. This means that users who initially purchased and held Odyssey NFTs are likely to be at a loss.
Even NFTs obtained for free through tasks have seen their floor prices drop to single digits, unable to cover the costs incurred by users when completing the tasks, and some are not even enough to buy a cup of coffee.
Many traditional brands are scaling back their NFT layouts
It is undeniable that Starbucks' Odyssey NFT plan was once seen as a textbook example of a Web2 brand entering Web3. The sudden termination of the plan has caused quite a stir in the industry. Starbucks' exit is closely related to the overall downturn in the NFT market.
Since February 2024, the cryptocurrency market has seen a general rise, with BTC (Bitcoin) reaching a historic high, ETH (Ethereum) approaching its previous high, and the rise of the Meme and AI sectors bringing returns to many cryptocurrency investors. However, the NFT market seems to be stuck in a "cold winter."
According to CoinGecko, the trading volume of NFTs in 2023 was less than half of that in 2022, dropping from $26.3 billion to $11.8 billion, a decrease of $14.5 billion. In addition, the total NFT sales in 2023 were approximately $8.7 billion, a 63.35% decrease from the $23.74 billion in 2022.
NFT trading platform Blur's real-time data shows that the floor prices of blue-chip NFTs are generally falling. The leading NFT series "Bored Ape Yacht Club" (BAYC) has been continuously declining, with a 7% decrease in the past 7 days. "Pudgy Penguins," "LilPudgys," and "Azuki" have also experienced a 10%-20% decline, while the floor price of DeGods has dropped by over 40% in a single day.
The relentless downturn in the NFT market has persisted for half a year. The "flagship" BAYC has dropped from 75 ETH to around 13 ETH, and the decline continues. KOL Bunny, who once firmly held BAYC, even stated, "The BAYC price chart makes me want to commit suicide."
Against the backdrop of the overall downturn in the NFT market, many traditional brands that were previously optimistic about NFTs and had NFT layouts have also become hesitant. In addition to Starbucks, traditional brands such as GameStop, social media platform X, and Nike have begun to scale back their NFT product layouts.
In February 2024, game retailer GameStop announced on its official website that due to regulatory uncertainty, the company would gradually close its NFT market starting on February 2. Customers would no longer be able to buy, sell, or create NFTs. Prior to this, GameStop had already canceled support for NFT wallets in November 2023.
GameStop, a publicly traded company with over 6,000 offline stores worldwide, showed signs of fatigue under the impact of the pandemic, posting losses in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, GameStop began to shift its focus to the cryptocurrency market and launched its NFT platform in July, with the trading volume of GameStop NFTs reaching $2 million on the launch day.
The enthusiasm of cryptocurrency players pushed GameStop NFTs into the top 10 in market rankings, but this achievement did not last long. In the past month, the trading volume on the GameStop NFT website was only about $40,000.
In addition, South Korean telecommunications giant KT will also close its NFT platform MINCL on March 4, citing "changes in business conditions." According to the notice, NFT holders can transfer their NFTs to electronic wallets outside of MINCL, and after the service end date, users will not be able to view any remaining NFTs.
In January of this year, Elon Musk's social media platform X also stopped supporting NFT avatars, and the metaverse concept giant Meta ended its NFT plan in early 2023.
The halt of the Odyssey plan may be related to the significant drop in NFT prices. The plan officially started selling NFTs less than a year ago, which roughly aligns with the meaning of "Beta (testing)." For Starbucks, this Web3 marketing approach may have been just a one-year trial, and it did not disrupt Starbucks' existing "Starbucks Rewards" membership system.
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