Cardinal Labs
Closed a year after a seed round co-led by Solana Ventures
A Solana protocol and developer toolkit that let NFTs be rented, staked without leaving the holder's wallet, sold as subscriptions or tickets, and carry enforced royalties.
- Capital raised (announced)
Recorded announced backing; this is separate from cash received, customer deposits and money recovered.
- NFTs staked, by the company's count
- Estimated
Company-reported NFTs staked by July 2022; assets using the service, rather than a user count.
Funding
| Round | Date | Announced | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | 2022 | ||
| Pre-seed | Unknown |
Announced is what was said at the time. Cash actually received is rarely disclosed and is not assumed to match.
People
| Name | Role | Period | Now | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spencer Rust | — | Not established | Oct 2026 |
Timeline
22 July 2022
The company had four staff and said it planned to hire at least three more, and to explore other blockchains later.
28 June 2023
19 July 2023
The company's social accounts were also scheduled to close on this date.
26 August 2023
Remaining staked tokens, unallocated pool rewards and wrapped NFTs, including rentals, were to be force-returned to depositors.
How it ended
Cardinal announced on 28 June 2023 that it was winding down its protocols, giving two months' notice. New staking pools, rentals, rental extensions and deposits stopped on 19 July, and anything still deposited after 26 August was to be returned to its owners' addresses by forced withdrawal. The team wrote that product-market fit had been difficult to find in a difficult macroeconomic environment, and that some of its members wanted to pursue other things.
Still alive
Open spot
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Sources
4 sources behind this page.
- 1Solana's Cardinal shuts down, citing economic conditions · Cointelegraph · Jun 2023
- 2Solana's Cardinal Protocol shuts down due to economic challenges · crypto.news · Jun 2023
- 3Solana NFT utility protocol Cardinal raises $4.4 million in seed funding · The Block · Jul 2022
- 4Cardinal Labs shuts down · Web3 Is Going Just Great (Molly White) · Jun 2023
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