Global sportswear giant Nike (NKE) confirmed the sale of its Web3 subsidiary RTFKT to a mysterious buyer, officially ending this four-year metaverse experiment. However, the market reaction was mixed. Nike's stock price continued to hover around the low of $63 due to declining profits in its financial report and a slowdown in the Chinese market; on the other hand, CloneX, an NFT blue-chip project that was considered abandoned, attracted speculative buying due to its freedom from the constraints of a large corporation, and its price surged nearly three times against the trend.
Nike sells RTFKT, accelerating the cut to Web3
Sports giant Nike has confirmed the sale of its Web3 subsidiary RTFKT to a mystery buyer, officially ending a four-year metaverse experiment.
This move is a key step in new CEO Elliott Hill's strategy to return to the core of the sports business. Faced with declining revenue and pressure on its core business, Nike has chosen to cut its losses, no longer burning money on non-core virtual sneaker businesses, and instead focusing its resources on physical product innovation and restoring its wholesale channels.
On December 19th last year, Nike's stock price experienced sharp selling pressure after the release of its financial report, with a single-day drop of over 10%. Although revenue barely met expectations, the precipitous decline in profitability and the severe downturn in the Greater China market caused investors to lose patience with the new CEO's reforms, resulting in one of the worst single-day drops in recent years. The sale of RTFKT was seen as a stop-loss signal, with investors watching to see the effectiveness of the new CEO's reforms.
CloneX's "Liberation" Carnival
After Nike confirmed its withdrawal, the CloneX community actually saw it as a positive development, and the price surged from the near-death 0.1 ETH range to 0.28-0.36 ETH within 24 hours, with an increase of over 280% at one point.
Rumors are circulating that the new buyer may be Yuga Labs or other Web3 native giants. Investors are betting that RTFKT, freed from Nike's compliance and bureaucratic constraints, can restart a more aggressive token economy or gaming-enabled strategy, leading to a large influx of speculative funds hoping for a rebound.
This article, "Nike Sells RTFKT! NKE Stock Price Slumps, CloneX Sees a Stunning 280% Celebration," first appeared on ABMedia ABMedia .
