Starbucks suddenly stopped the Odyssey plan: its NFTs were seriously broken, and Polygon once sponsored US$4 million

When the NFT market fell to freezing point, Starbucks announced that the Odyssey NFT plan, launched less than two years ago, would be terminated. At the same time, Polygon Labs was revealed to have paid $4 million to Starbucks to fund the loyalty rewards program, thereby defeating other competitors and becoming a Starbucks partner. Behind Starbucks' sudden end to the NFT plan, it may be related to various reasons such as low user participation and the sluggish NFT market.

Plan to launch new member experience, most Odyssey NFTs are seriously broken

Last week, Starbucks announced that they would terminate the testing phase of the Odyssey NFT program on March 31 and close the Discord community. Despite the impending closure of the Odyssey NFT program, users can continue to trade on Nifty Gateway.

Although Starbucks officials have not yet issued an explanation for the specific reasons for the closure of Odyssey, Odyssey Community’s Steve Kaczynski hinted at the motivation for the closure plan in an interview with TechCrunch. He said: "The NFT field may be experiencing a historic decline. The Odyssey NFT program has attracted more than 58,000 active users to participate, but most of them are not Web3 natives."

As a reward for launch in the second half of 2022 program, Starbucks Odyssey aims to combine the company's loyalty reward program with NFTs to enhance customer experience, and has launched multiple themed NFTs in the past, many of which sold out quickly after being launched online. However, as the NFT market took a turn for the worse, Starbucks' 27 Odyssey NFTs experienced widespread and serious breaches, and the transaction volume within the month was only hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Nifty Gateway data shows that as of March 21, for example, the floor price of "The First Store Collection Stamp" has dropped by more than 82% from the issue price of US$100, and " The Starbucks® Green Apron Stamp" has dropped 86% from its issue price, "First Store Collection" has dropped 82%, "Holiday Cheer Stamp" has dropped more than 72.6% from its historical average price, and "Going Places Journey Stamp" has dropped 82% from its issue price. The drop exceeded 98%, etc. However, there are still some series of NFTs that have not yet broken through. For example, "The Siren Collection Stamp" still has a 30% increase from the issue price.

However, Starbucks also announced that it will soon launch a new member experience, which is planned to be officially launched in April. In addition, Steve Kaczynski also revealed that Starbucks is working hard to explore new ways to enhance brand value and loyalty programs, and plans to further expand the rewards program in 2024.

Polygon Labs once provided a sponsorship of US$4 million and invested in the matchmaker

After Polygon Labs cooperated with Starbucks, its popularity increased significantly. Starbucks publicly stated that the main reason for choosing to cooperate was Polygon’s advantages such as low transaction fees and scalability. The cooperation allows Polygon Labs to demonstrate its technical strength and market influence, and the two parties have achieved a mutually beneficial and win-win situation in the cooperation.

It is reported that Polygon’s cooperation with Starbucks was brought together through the digital collectibles company Forum3. The company’s co-founder Adam Brotman is the former chief digital officer of Starbucks and later became a special advisor to Odyssey. CoinDesk quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Adam Brotman talked with Polygon, Solana and others in early 2022, and finally selected Polygon due to technical reasons.

But unlike most companies that pay technology companies for services, Polygon Labs was required to pay Starbucks $4 million as part of the cost of building Starbucks Odyssey. This fee also allowed Polygon to compete with three other companies. Blockchain wins cooperation from competition. Regarding the reasons for sponsorship, the market also speculates that if large brands such as Starbucks choose Polygon as their launch platform to participate in the encryption field, it may attract more customer groups to follow suit.

It is worth mentioning that Polygon Ventures also participated in the US$10 million seed round of financing announced by Forum3 in 2022. Currently, Forum3’s official website shows that this company, which once focused on branded digital collectibles, has transformed into an artificial intelligence track.

Separately, Polygon Labs’ big deals to forge high-profile partnerships with companies like Nike and Starbucks are remnants of past leadership strategies, according to a person familiar with the matter. It is reported that Ryan Wyatt, the former president of Polygon Labs, led the cooperation with Starbucks, but he left after the high-level reshuffle of Polygon Labs in 2023. With the departure of the members involved in these cooperation and Polygon's shift to the ZK track, the future focus will be more on technology rather than brand marketing.

This is not an isolated case for large traditional platforms such as Starbucks to leave NFT. In the past, GameStop, Meta, eBay, etc. have all closed or laid off their teams due to factors such as NFT development prospects and supervision. This also means that NFT must move towards a more sustainable future. The broad market still faces significant challenges.

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