Tessera, an NFT ownership platform that facilitates collective ownership and governance of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has announced the shutdown of its operations over the next few weeks, according to a tweet by co-founder Andy Chorlian. The decision reflects the challenging environment within the rapidly evolving NFT market.
Chorlian, who established the company with Nejc Krajnik in 2021, stated that the decision came after "carefully analyzing possible market scenarios, our company structure, and our financial situation." Escher, a curated digital fine art marketplace and one of Tessera's projects, will also cease operations.
Chorlian further explained the reasoning behind the closure, saying, "As we really dug into the economic model for Escher, we saw that the targets we needed to hit to attain profitability – compared to the time and resource costs to scale there – just didn’t add up or make good business sense."
Other projects under the Tessera umbrella include Nounlets, a fractional ownership platform for Nouns NFTs, and We Do a Little, a podcast hosted by Chorlian and NFT influencer Deeze.
The news of Tessera's closure comes less than a year after its rebrand from Fractional and the announcement of a $20 million funding round led by crypto investment giant Paradigm. The Series A funding round also included investments from Focus Labs, Uniswap Labs Ventures, eGirl Capital, and Yunt Capital.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice disclosed that Chorlian and four other individuals had been charged for allegedly participating in a securities manipulation scheme. This development has added to the uncertainty surrounding the future of Tessera and its affiliated projects.
As the NFT market continues to evolve, the closure of Tessera highlights the risks and volatility inherent in this emerging industry. Businesses and investors alike must navigate the complex landscape to determine viable opportunities and maintain a sustainable presence within this ever-changing space.
