Rodeo Cierra Operations: How the NFT Market Continues to Face Deep Challenges

The NFT market landscape deteriorates again this week. Rodeo, a social platform dedicated to buying, selling, and collecting NFTs, has officially announced its closure. With this, it becomes the second major NFT platform to announce its end in recent days, revealing a concerning trend in the sector that has been in crisis for years. According to reports from Cointelegraph, the reality facing Rodeo is the same as that confronting the entire ecosystem: the inability to scale operations profitably in a limited market.

Rodeo’s Social Model Failed to Achieve Necessary Sustainability

Rodeo launched on the Apple App Store in March 2025 with an ambitious proposal: to transform the NFT collecting experience into something playful and community-oriented, moving away from a purely transactional model. The goal was to reward creators for participating in the platform, not just for buying and selling. The platform simplified blockchain technical complexities to make it accessible to the general public.

Kayvon Tehranian, CEO and co-founder of Rodeo, explained in a post on X that the vision was never about monetization: “We believed that collecting could be playful and community-driven, not just transactional. That belief guided every decision we made.” However, he acknowledged that the strategy did not work as planned. The user volume never reached the critical scale needed to ensure long-term economic viability. Continuing to operate under these circumstances was not feasible, so the company opted for an orderly shutdown.

Asset Migration Strategy: Arweave as a Bridge

To minimize damage to its users, Rodeo has designed a structured transition plan. Users will be able to transfer their media and metadata to Arweave, a decentralized storage platform based on blockchain. The platform will also provide an assisted asset migration tool to guide users in transferring from Rodeo’s smart contract.

The schedule is as follows: the platform will operate normally until February 10, 2026. Afterwards, it will enter read-only mode, allowing users to view their data without performing new transactions. By March 10, the platform will be fully closed. In a related move, Tehranian announced that Foundation, the digital gallery and platform for NFT artists that oversaw $230 million in primary sales since its inception, will be transferred to Blackdove, another digital art platform committed to the sector’s future.

The NFT Market Crisis: Numbers Indicating Collapse

Data reflect the magnitude of the crisis. Ethereum, which in January 2022 hosted nearly $5 billion in NFT trading volume, recorded only $159.2 million about a month ago. This represents a 96.8% decline in just over four years. Currently, activity remains depressed, with 24-hour trading volume reaching just $892.02 million across the entire Ethereum blockchain according to the latest available data.

The market that once generated massive enthusiasm and attracted millions of retail investors has been reduced to a niche. Short-lived price surges have never managed to solidify into sustained recoveries. This volatility combined with low volumes creates the perfect environment for platforms without a sufficient user base to seek orderly exits.

Nifty Gateway Also Adjusts Its Closure Strategy

In a parallel development, Nifty Gateway, one of the most prominent markets from the first wave of NFTs in 2021, has announced adjustments to its closure process after listening to community feedback. The platform will use Arweave for media and metadata transfers, extending the asset transfer deadline to April 23, 2026.

Additionally, Nifty Gateway is developing a mass withdrawal tool specifically designed for users holding multiple NFTs, ensuring they have enough time to complete their transactions before the final deadline. Initially, Nifty Gateway announced its closure plans without providing detailed explanations for this decision. Now, with these adjustments, the platform demonstrates that it listens to its user base and seeks to minimize negative impacts.

The situations of Rodeo and Nifty Gateway’s adjustments are symptoms of an industry that must find new sustainable models. As blockchain infrastructure advances, the NFT market continues searching for its purpose beyond speculation.