Coffee giant Starbucks announced on Friday the closure of the Starbucks Odyssey beta platform ("OdysseyNFT"), which provides an NFT reward system based on the Ethereum expansion network Polygon casting. Starbucks will close the Odyssey test platform on March 31, and the platform mission will continue until March 25. The Starbucks Odyssey Discord server will shut down early on March 18. There is currently no clear sign that Starbucks’ NFT expansion plans to return.
The official FAQ reads: "OdysseyNFT testing is coming to an end in order to prepare for the next steps as we continue to develop the project."
The FAQ goes on to note that Starbucks is "working to provide members with a place to connect in the future," but stops short of suggesting that the platform will return in its current form or that an "evolved" version will eventually emerge.
Coffee giant Starbucks has taken an important step towards Web3 by launching the Starbucks Odyssey rewards program on the Ethereum sidechain network Polygon. After dropping some free bonus NFTs to early adopters, it will launch its first paid collectible this afternoon. Starbucks Odyssey will launch a limited-edition Siren Collection for beta users of the platform at 3 p.m. ET today, offering 2,000 NFTs priced at $100 each.
"While the Starbucks Odyssey beta program is coming to an end, we're excited to see what's next and thank you for your continued participation and feedback," the FAQ also reads. "We are grateful for the opportunity to test these different ways of driving community and loyalty at Starbucks, and we look forward to bringing these experiences to more customers."
Starbucks Odyssey launches in closed beta at the end of 2022, and the coffee giant is one of the biggest examples of a major brand flexing its muscles in the Web3 space. Starbucks was one of the major brands on the Polygon platform at the time.
Starbucks Odyssey is billed as an expansion of the existing Starbucks rewards program and offers benefits to users who purchase coffee and other products in-store, as well as participate in Q&A and other content on the platform. It also offers a variety of rewards, including NFT stamps, drink-making classes, and even visits to Costa Rican coffee farms.
Starbucks Odyssey, the coffee chain’s NFT rewards program developed on the Ethereum scaling network Polygon, is still in closed beta, but early users are already buying NFT stamps for nearly $2,000 each. Since the beta version of Starbucks Odyssey was launched in December, its stamp NFT has sold a total of 360 stamps on NiftyGateway’s official secondary market, with a total transaction volume of more than $143,000. This relatively low number is expected, as only a limited number of users purchased Starbucks Odyssey.
Odyssey has been in a closed beta phase since its launch, with Starbucks occasionally inviting more users in and holding sales of limited-edition NFT stamps that can be traded. The NFT stamps that were given to users for free as early as 2022 had a brief moment of rising demand in early 2023, when some NFT stamps were sold for nearly $2,000 in the secondary market.
According to Starbucks, the Odyssey brand marketplace will "transition to the Nifty marketplace," referring to the brand's technology partner NiftyGateway. Polygon-based NFT stamps can be moved outside the platform and used and traded elsewhere.