At the end of February, Solana Spaces, two retail locations that debuted this summer in New York and Miami, will close.
Investor @vibhu, headquartered in San Francisco, developed the concept for the retail locations for projects with a Solana presence. He wanted to provide individuals interested in NFTs and the blockchain with more of a face-to-face onboarding experience.
Yet, as a post on SolanaSpaces’ Twitter account explained, the initiative didn’t draw as many people as was anticipated.
According to Vibhu, the objective was always to change to a different strategy if the chance presented itself to draw interested potential investors to the Solana ecosystem.
DRiP, a new initiative by the same investor that focuses on airdropping free NFTs to individuals they onboard and providing them an advantage over those who formed a wallet out of curiosity, appears to manifest this possibility.
Regrettably, this new endeavor fared much better than the SolanaSpaces retail outlets.
“While our stores onboard between 500 and 1000 people per week, DRiP onboards that same quantity EVERY DAY. Over the last two months, it became increasingly clear to me that we were at an inflection point with our stores and our digital products, and a few weeks ago, we made the call to focus our ongoing efforts on DRiP.”
As a result, by the time spring arrives, the two physical storefronts will be shuttered.
But, the shop wants to close with a bang. First, as soon as the stores officially close, the code that runs Solana Spaces will be available online. Because of this, anybody who wanted to continue SolanaSpaces’ legacy could do so without worrying about rebranding or copyright disputes.
Second, despite the stores shutting down, Vibhu intends to maintain a physical presence in each of these cities. However, these locations will only be utilized for community events and in-person pick-ups of Solana merchandise.
But, employees will be handing out free Solana merchandise up to the official closing on February 28. Fans are welcome to swing by, say farewell, and pick up any merchandise they may have ordered.