Marketplaces for Ethereum L2 NFT stop operating permanently

To open-source their code, Quix on Optimism and Stratos on Arbitrum announced they would suspend operations. NFT collectors will use OpenSea for their transactions.

By: Flagship Team

The infrastructure of the "sibling" NFT market fails prematurely due to "malnutrition"

Optimism-based Quix announced their partnership with Optimism Collective to "usher Quix into its next phrase" on Twitter yesterday, November 23rd, 2022, and thus concluded their final Twitter bow.

Quix's "sibling" marketplace, Stratos, based on the same technology as Arbitrum, retweeted the news that Quix was closing 12 minutes later.

Show Tweet from <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We’re so grateful for the community support and adoption we’ve seen over the past year. We’re proud of what we built and how it’s grown. Today we’re announcing that Quix as a company is winding down; now we turn to the Optimism Collective to usher Quix into its next phase.</p>— Quix 🔴✨ - Optimism NFT Marketplace (@qx_app) <a href="https://twitter.com/qx_app/status/1595507545774460928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 23, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Stratos tweeted, "A huge thank you to everyone in the Arbitrum and Stratos community. Our sister marketplace, Quix, is winding down, and we are also. Quix will be open-sourcing their code, which also powers Stratos."

Show Tweet from <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A huge thank you to everyone in the Arbitrum and Stratos community. Our sister marketplace, Quix, is winding down, and we are as well. Quix will be open-sourcing their code, which also powers Stratos. <a href="https://t.co/6Lj6QLlqSe">https://t.co/6Lj6QLlqSe</a></p>— Stratos (💙,🧡) - Arbitrum NFT Marketplace (@stratosnft) <a href="https://twitter.com/stratosnft/status/1595510629393002496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 23, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It was detailed in a lengthy "Message from Quix" that current funding for Quix is inadequate.

Quix appears to be "running too lean of an operation," as its monthly infrastructure costs exceed its monthly revenue.

Quix has been keeping things afloat with only a three-person team, but they have accomplished a great deal despite their small size, including the introduction of the Quix launch pad, the construction of an Optimism ERC-721 bridge, and the facilitation of other teams' integration of NFTs into their products (such as Mirror, RabbitHole, and CoinGecko).

On the other hand, they admitted, “We cannot maintain Quix as a going concern at this time. For the transition into Quix's next phase, we rely on Optimism Collective.”

Quix acknowledges that it is sad to leave but that they are pleased with their progress over the years. Lightening the mood, Quix declared, “On behalf of the Optimism Community, the Optimism Foundation has enabled the open-sourcing of Quix's code.”

This means the Quix source code can be used and improved without cost by the general public.

How likely was it that Quix would return?

Some Quix users claim that the Quix platform is the best NFT marketplace for discovering exciting works of art and worthwhile projects.

They even go so far as to say it's preferable to NFT marketplace giants like OpenSea.

It appears that the decision by Ethereum's L2 NFT marketplaces to relocate to Optimism Collective is more of a retreat than an outright capitulation.

The optimism fund is well-known for the grants it awards to promising new initiatives. Perhaps there is a comeback, and they will pick up and emerge bigger in the not-too-distant future.

Disclaimer: Nothing on this site should be construed as a financial investment recommendation. It’s important to understand that investing is a high-risk activity. Investments expose money to potential loss.