According to CoinDesk, Glass, a venture-backed crypto startup focused on monetizing NFT videos, is ceasing development as its founders have determined that the demand for digital, tradeable video NFTs is too low to continue. Co-founders Sam Sends and Varun Iyer announced on Friday that they will 'end active development' of Glass Protocol. The two-and-a-half-year-old startup is the latest victim of a sustained downturn in crypto trading that has hit the NFT space particularly hard, with trading volumes down for all forms of on-chain collectibles.

Glass aimed to provide online content creators with a platform for minting and selling their videos directly to their fans, potentially earning more money than on platforms like YouTube. The founders saw blockchain technology as a way to bring more transparency and permanence to this process by storing the videos in a decentralized manner. Although the NFTs created through Glass will continue to exist alongside the website and protocol, the founders will not continue working on the protocol, effectively halting its future growth.

Glass raised $5 million in September from investors including TCG Crypto and 1kx. It is unclear if the protocol has any of its venture capital remaining or if it ran out of runway. Sends and Iyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In recent months, the founders pivoted Glass from the Solana blockchain to Ethereum, the protocol's original home.