The gaming NFT marketplace Aqua is closing down, as announced by CEO Sean Ryan on LinkedIn. The decision to shut down was first revealed last month, and is now official as of Friday.
CEO Sean Ryan announced in a LinkedIn post, “At Aqua, we did some things well and some things not as well, but the Web3 gaming market isn’t scaling to a mass market size in a time frame that made sense. Therefore, it was time to call it a day and move on to other opportunities, especially for our awesome employees.”
Aqua, launched in 2022 by Sean Ryan, a former VP at Facebook, aimed to create a NFT gaming marketplace. The startup partnered with blockchain firms like Immutable and Polygon Labs. Despite its aspirations, Aqua is closing after less than two years of operation.
In the post, Ryan also explained that the startup had struggled to raise funds in a broader crypto gaming market with “slower-than-expected growth.” The attached graphic to the post outlined the decision to close the company.
Aqua aimed to provide a gaming NFT marketplace and white-glove, embedded marketplace solutions for game developers. The marketplace supported NFTs on Ethereum, as well as scaling networks Polygon and Immutable X.
Earlier this year, Ryan had told Decrypt in an interview that Aqua was designed for true gamers—not “degen” crypto traders looking to make money by flipping gaming NFTs for profit. He found that game developers overwhelmingly wanted a seamless game marketplace that doesn’t pull gamers out to a third-party website.
However, Aqua faced increasing competition in the gaming NFT marketplace space. G2A entered the NFT sales market, OpenSea revamped its gaming offerings and content, and Magic Eden also emphasized gaming as a core focus going forward. Additionally, in August, GameStop announced it was killing its NFT wallet, citing “regulatory uncertainty.”
With Aqua’s closure, Ryan expressed regret and stated that he still believes in the idea that gamers will own their gaming assets, although it will take longer than expected. The company has instructed players with an AQUA Wallet to transfer their funds into a different wallet or reach out to [email protected] for assistance.
As the gaming NFT marketplace sees an increasing number of entrants and exits, Aqua’s closure adds to the growing list of platforms that haven’t been able to sustain operations.
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