Porsche Ends 'Long Haul' Web3 Project and Pioneers Circle as 911 NFT Trading Slows
Key Takeaways
- •Porsche announced the conclusion of its Web3 project and Pioneers Circle less than four years after debuting its 911 NFT collection, despite initially describing the effort as a commitment for the long haul.
- •The 911 NFTs will stay with their holders and continue to exist onchain, while the Discord server will become a read-only archive and the project's X account will no longer be actively updated.
- •The collection launched in January 2023 with a planned supply of 7,500 tokens, but minting was halted following complaints over pricing and lack of utility, leaving a final supply of 2,363 tokens.
- •OpenSea data shows the collection generated roughly $20 million in all-time trading volume, but only about $38,000 over the past year and around $2,900 over the past month.
- •Porsche first unveiled its Web3 plans in 2022 at Art Basel in Miami, when then-deputy chairman Lutz Meschke cited potential uses in the metaverse, purchasing experiences, and supply chains.
German automaker Porsche is winding down its Web3 project and its Pioneers Circle community, formally ending an initiative the company once described as a long-term commitment less than four years after the debut of its Porsche 911 nonfungible token (NFT) collection, a set of unique blockchain-based tokens representing digital ownership.
"Today, we are announcing the conclusion of the Porsche Web3 project and Pioneers Circle," the company said in a post on X. According to the announcement, the project had expanded beyond its initial technology focus over the years, coming to include community events and a range of other online and offline activities.
The automaker said the Porsche 911 NFTs will remain with their holders and continue to exist onchain, meaning the tokens persist as blockchain records even though the company is stepping back from active management. As part of the wind-down, Porsche will turn the community's Discord server into a read-only archive and stop actively updating the project's X account, preserving the channels in archival form rather than removing them outright.
The 911 NFT collection launched in January 2023 with a planned supply of 7,500 tokens. The company halted minting — the process of issuing new tokens for sale — after complaints over pricing and a lack of utility, leaving the final supply at 2,363 tokens, less than a third of what was originally planned.
Porsche first unveiled its Web3 plans in 2022, when it announced its entry into virtual worlds at Art Basel in Miami, according to its official newsroom. At the time, Lutz Meschke, then the automaker's deputy chairman, said the company had made its commitment "for the long haul," citing potential uses in the metaverse, purchasing experiences and supply chains.
Trading activity has since slowed sharply. According OpenSea data, the collection recorded roughly $20 million in all-time trading volume, but only about $38,000 over the past year and around $2,900 over the past month — a measure of how thinly the tokens have changed hands recently compared with the project's earlier period. Those onchain records remain publicly viewable, so the collection's trading history will stay visible even as Porsche's own community channels go quiet.
This article is based on reporting originally published by Cointelegraph.
