The pendulum of history has swung back from meaning "it's over" to meaning "it's back" for ailing retailer GameStop after its cryptocurrency experiment and brief moment in the sun as a Reddit meme of sorts, Decrypt reported. As Decrypt reported, the company announced that it will close its NFT marketplace on February 2.

The marketplace has been updated with a notice to that effect, citing "continued regulatory uncertainty in the crypto space." This is exactly the same wording as when GameStop announced the end of its crypto wallet. Users will no longer be able to buy, sell, or create on this platform, but assets they own will still be accessible on the blockchain through other platforms.

Like many retailers, GameStop is struggling in the face of e-commerce and digital distribution, but it remains a nostalgic and strong attraction for many gamers: in 2021, its stock price will enter the stratosphere by small traders organized through Reddit We have seen a strange saga. The story was even made into a movie, with an inexplicably stellar cast, but the good times did not last for GameStop or many of its hobbyist traders.

GameStop rode the wave of corporate and individual celebrities looking to capitalize on the height of the NFT boom in 2021 and 2022. But the company's revenues continued to decline and CEO Matthew Furlong was dismissed last June; GameStop pulled out of the sector due to regulatory uncertainty, and it is even clear that no one cares enough to regulate crypto any longer. [Not only have the failures of numerous so-called stablecoins and the highly publicized bankruptcy of FTX and the indictment of its founder, Sam Bankman Fried, but the general collapse in the value of cryptocurrencies and NFTs in general could lead to irreparable reputational damage for the technology. Besides, we are now betting our future and our entire economy on AI, Grandpa.