S Korean Electronics Giant LG Shuts Down Its NFT Marketplace

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LG, a multinational conglomerate and consumer electronics corporation, has shut down its non-fungible token marketplace barely three years after launch. The announcement comes just less than six months after Kraken, one of the leading crypto exchanges, closed its non-fungible token marketplace. In this article, we shall assess some of the factors that have led to LG’s exit from the NFT market.

LG Exits The NFT Market

In a March 20 site publication, LG Electronics confirmed plans to shut down its non-fungible token marketplace, terming its decision as a “Difficult Decision.” The LG Art Lab crashed its NFT marketplace on March 10, 2025, barring crypto users from making purchases on the platform. The company has told its users that the LG Art Lab team will automatically transfer all their NFTs to their wallets by April 30, 2025.

LG shuts down Art Lab #NFT marketplace three years after launch pic.twitter.com/7m2Q9LId7C

— Crypto Charmer (@CryptoCharmer) March 20, 2025

Established in 1947, LG Corporation, formerly known as Lucky-Goldstar, is a South Korean multinational conglomerate founded by Koo In-hwoi and managed by successive generations of his family. It is the fourth-largest company in South Korea. The company is renowned globally for manufacturing consumer and commercial products ranging from TVs, home appliances, air solutions, monitors, and automotive components.

The Electronics giant was tempted to enter the NFT market during the historic NFT market craze in 2022. At the time, the company introduced its digital marketplace for NFTs LG Art Labs. The NFT marketplace was designed to integrate digital art into consumers’ living rooms. The NFT platform allowed crypto and NFT users to buy, sell, and display NFTs directly on their LG smart TVs.

The LG Art Labs NFT marketplace initially operated on the Hedera blockchain network, which used a blockchain alternative called hashgraph, but it expanded to Ethereum last year. The NFT market added new digital art to the platform through “groundbreaking” NFT drops, which users could purchase simply by scanning a QR code to complete transactions through Wallypto, LG’s crypto wallet app.

The South Korean electronics giant launched its NFT market platform shortly after its electronic market rival, Samsung, launched a similar NFT TV marketplace in partnership with Nifty Gateway. The Samsung NFT TV marketplace has outlasted the LG NFT marketplace as it is still operational despite market challenges. LG Art Labs is set to shut down operations completely on June 17, 2025.

More NFT Projects Exit The NFT Market

LG joins the rapidly growing list of crypto projects that have exited the NFT market. In January 2025, Quidd, an NFT marketplace under Animoca Brands, announced its closure. The platform ceased operations on January 3, 2025. The MakersPlace, another digital art market platform, also shut down its operations in early 2025 due to “ongoing market challenges” after six years of operation.

BREAKING: Quidd SHUTS DOWN PERMANENTLY 👾

➡️ Quidd announce closure
➡️ Paul Barron is nowhere to be found
➡️ YouTuber Cavell Anderson was paid to promote Quidd, while criticizing VeVe
➡️ Consolidation in the space was necessary

After a lot of mudslinging and paying influencers… pic.twitter.com/aDk2e97mtP

— Sergio (@SergioCollects) January 3, 2025

In November 2024, Nike, the multinational digital fashion and sneaker brand, announced that it would shut down its virtual sneaker and fashion brand, RTFKT, by the end of January 2025 as part of a broader shift in the company’s priorities under a new chief executive officer. Previously, GameStop decided to close down its NFT platform, which it initially launched in July 2022, during the peak of NFT trading.

🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨

Nike to shut down RTFKT this year following $1 Billion acquisition in 2021 pic.twitter.com/lrBDIfA6fB

— Nick O’Neill (@chooserich) March 18, 2024

The exit of LG from the NFT market is associated with the poor performance recorded in the NFT sector for the past few months. Since its boom in the early 2020s, the non-fungible token market has experienced fluctuations and volatility across the spectrum, leaving many companies recording investment losses. Last year, a report found that over 90% of NFT holders were holding nearly worthless items. Despite a decline in interest, some sectors, such as gaming and virtual real estate, continue to find value in NFTs.

A report published earlier this month said that the market for NFTs has been in such a dramatic downturn since 2023 that 95 percent of them are considered “dead." https://t.co/G2IFBLQBO9

— ARTnews (@artnews) August 29, 2024