POAP Founder Isabel Announces Gradual End of Project
POAP founder Isabel announced that after more than 5 years of operation, the POAP project will gradually come to an end.
The project has minted millions of digital collectibles across hundreds of communities and collaborated with Coinbase, Amex, Warner Music Group, Bayer, among others, having minted over 8,000 items in just one week during Devcon. The difficulty in establishing a sustainable business model without sacrificing core principles due to the crypto funding cycle and distribution model has led to this decision.
Community and collector assets will enter a maintenance state, with beneficiaries being digital collectibles and identity projects that can build sustainable models, while those relying on short-term speculation will be under pressure.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
As the co-founder and general manager of POAP, Isabel led the expansion from hackathon sign-ins to institutional collaborations, having previously transitioned the platform to maintenance mode and focused on open collection standards. Historical trends show that she has always emphasized community significance over speculative attributes.
Capital is shifting from event-driven NFT collections to digital identity and memory infrastructure with more sustainable business models. This shift is motivated by the rapid iteration of the crypto funding cycle and technology stack, making purely community-driven products difficult to scale and monetize, as evidenced by the cessation of active development and the summarization of community value and brand trust as a long-term moat.
Similar cases can be seen in the contraction of early Web3 social and check-in protocols after the bull market. The current digital collectibles sector is transitioning from hot products to foundational infrastructure standards, with control concentrating on next-generation solutions that can address distribution and sustainability issues.
This essentially represents a technological replacement and capital path adjustment: products driven by short-term speculation are being replaced by more enduring open standards, with the mechanism being that while user communities are core assets, they struggle to withstand market cycles without a matching business closed loop.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
- Community is the most undervalued asset.
- Sustainable models are harder to maintain than core principles.
- Brand trust is the only moat in an era of rapid iteration.