Coffee giant Starbucks announced Friday that it has shut down the Starbucks Odyssey beta platform, which offered NFT-based rewards on the Ethereum elastic network Polygon.
Starbucks will close the Odyssey beta platform on March 31st, with platform requests available until March 25th. The Starbucks Odyssey Discord server will be shutting down on March 18th. There is no clear sign of a return plan for Starbucks' NFT foray.
“The Starbucks Odyssey Beta must end as we continue to evolve the program,” reads an official FAQ.
The FAQ goes on to say that Starbucks is “working to provide a place for members to connect in the future,” but makes no comment on whether the platform will return in its current form or if an “enhanced” version will eventually be released.
“While the Starbucks Odyssey beta program is coming to an end, we're excited to see what comes next and are grateful for your continued participation and feedback,” the FAQ reads. “We are grateful for this opportunity to explore these different ways of driving community and loyalty at Starbucks, and we look forward to bringing these lessons to a wider audience.”
Starbucks Odyssey launched in closed beta in late 2022, serving as one of the biggest examples of a major brand the coffee giant is playing in the Web3 world. Polygon was one of the many major brands brought to the scene at that time.
Paid as an expanded version of the Starbucks Rewards program, Starbucks Odyssey offered benefits to users who purchased coffee and other products in stores, as well as participating in quizzes and other content on the platform. He then offered various prizes, including NFT stamps, cocktail lounges, or even a tour of a Costa Rican coffee farm.
Odyssey has been in closed beta since its launch, with Starbucks occasionally holding sales for limited-edition NFT stamps to let more users in, as well as trade them. In the year Free NFT stamps issued to users in 2022 saw a brief spike in demand in early 2023, when some NFTs flipped for nearly $2,000 on secondary markets.
According to Starbucks, the branded Odyssey Marketplace will “migrate to the Nifty Marketplace,” referring to Nifty Gateway, the brand's technical partner on the product initiative. And polygon-based NFT stamps can be moved outside the platform, as well as used and traded elsewhere.
Editor's note: This story has been updated after publication with additional details.
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